THE new cabinet of City of York Council is soon to make a decision about the sale of Oliver House.
They have a genuine dilemma, in deciding between the innovative co-housing proposals submitted by local residents YorSpace, and the conventional approach of developers.
The latter would satisfy the council’s desperate need to raise capital, but do little to provide for the equally desperate need for “affordable” housing or to support the social balance of Bishophill.
It is tempting to see this as a purely financial decision, but in reality is a decision about what kind of place we want Bishophill to be, and what kind of place we want York to be.
The most compelling argument in favour of the Yorspace scheme is that the housing would not be available for sale on the open market, and 100 per cent of it would therefore add to the city’s stock of low-cost housing.
We have seen the way the York housing market in recent years has been distorted by the increases in student housing, second homes and holiday lets. It is inevitable that additional open-market housing would attract more of the same.
York cannot go on in that way – we need to create genuine, sustainable and resilient communities, providing for a mix of people of different ages and incomes, having security of occupation and living in sustainable, low-energy buildings.
New ideas are needed. I visited the CoHousing scheme in Leeds and was very impressed. Oliver House should be seen not as a one-off but as an ongoing demonstration of a radical new approach.
Ann Petherick, Scarcroft Hill, York.
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