CONSULTATION has become something of a dirty word in recent years. We are consulted over everything - from fracking and the future of York Central to the route of the proposed HS2 high-speed rail route.

But the consultations often seem little more than a tick-box exercise, with the outcomes pre-determined and many sceptical about how much attention is paid to what ordinary people say.

City of York Council is determined its consultation over the future of York’s Castle Gateway area will be different. It has brought in My Future York - a group dedicated to finding better ways of engaging with the public - to run the consultation. And they’ve certainly come up with a different approach.

There are no pre-determined options for us to choose from, for a start. Instead, My Future York are beginning with a blank canvas - and inviting people to think big. In a series of walks, talks and other events, they’re asking us to imagine what the Castle Gateway area could be like ten years from now - and to talk about the kind of things we’d like to be able to do there. A series of suggestions will then be distilled down that will feed into the process of producing a masterplan. And My Future York say members of the public will be involved in commenting and advising right through to the stage at which development on the ground begins.

The council is describing it as a ‘bold new approach to public engagement’. Turn up at the Eye of York tomorrow, and you’ll have a chance to join in the debate yourself. We just hope the process works - and that it leads to a renaissance of this much-neglected yet historic quarter of York that the whole city can feel proud of.