MAKE It York, the city’s new ‘destination management’ organisation, has had to navigate some choppy waters in the 12 months since it was launched, not least of which were the devastating Boxing Day floods.

Nobody could have foreseen those. And the organisation candidly admits that it under-estimated the strength of local reaction to projects such as its proposals to remove the Parliament Street fountain and the Christmas carousel.

You’d expect any new organisation to go through a few teething difficulties, however.

For the first time, Make it York brought together in one organisation (run independently of City of York Council) responsibility for tourism, business support, city centre management and Science City.

It was a big change. But in the last year there have been some real successes. Make It York had the vision to allow the hugely successful Great Yorkshire Fringe to take over Parliament Street, and there has been a new Easter Festival and a much-extended St Nicholas Christmas Festival.

A new Guild of Media Arts has been formed (the first new trade guild in the city for 700 years) and, on December 1 this year, York will host its first Cultural Awards, with actor Mark Addy as patron.

Looking further ahead, there are plans in 2018 for an ambitious digital arts festival. And Make It York is hoping the Tower of London ceramic poppies art installation might be tempted into coming to Museum Gardens. That would be amazing if it happens and there’s no doubt that everyone in York will benefit from all of these initiatives.

However, Make It York has to not only deliver more inward investment and more tourism, it has the unenviable task of trying to do so while winning the hearts and minds of the majority of local people. So it’s good to see that firmly acknowledged as a key target in its strategy for the future.

In return, it would be equally as good to see the people of York offering it the support it needs to help make those improvements a reality.