New car park, public square, riverside walkway and apartments - work to start in 2019

A masterplan has been unveiled for the Castle Gateway project. It shows the existing Castle car park being replaced with a public square surrounding Clifford’s Tower, and alternative parking in a multi-storey car and coach park on St George’s Fields.

The first planning applications - covering both those elements - should be made by September, council leader Ian Gillies said, with building on the car park as soon as next spring.

Cllr Gillies said they were committing “20 years of failure” in the area to the past adding this was the first time a masterplan reflects the views of residents and the heritage of the area.

Deputy leader Cllr Andrew Waller added: “The Castle Gateway sees some of our most loved heritage side-by-side with some of the city centre’s most awkward and under-used spaces.

“Thanks to an open conversation with residents, we have a plan which breathes new life into all of it. We have a shared vision which has extensive support. Today we’re committing to deliver it.”

The longer term proposals include a riverside walkway along the Foss and a semi-circular bridge across the river which links the back of the Castle Museum to Piccadilly and the new Clifford’s Tower square.

Apartment blocks are planned for the Foss Basin and along Piccadilly - with ambitions to turn that area into a new “city living” quarter. The site of 17-21 Piccadilly - where Spark: York is due to open in May - would be redeveloped with small business units on the ground floor and apartments above; while a new building masking the back of the Coppergate centre could also have apartments above commercial or restaurant space on the ground floor.

The plans even mention water sports in the Foss and Foss Basin - including a floating swimming pool or wild swimming - although documents admit there are “significant water quality issues”.

Transport changes include junction alterations to let cars turn right out of Piccadilly onto Tower Street and right off Skeldergate Bridge into St George’s Fields, while a new “super crossing” would let cyclists and pedestrians cross all four lanes of traffic on Tower Street.

The multi-storey car park has been chosen over an underground car park near Clifford’s Tower as that would have cost £10 million more - with Cllr Gillies saying he had to “give way” to the cost argument.

The multi-storey car park would also be built to allow the ground floor to flood, with access above the flood levels.

Senior councillors are due to discuss the plan next week and will be asked to approve the first £2.4 million investment to cover planning applications for stages one and two, plus extra staff and legal and technical advice.

The project - which the council says will take five to 10 years to deliver - is broken into four work plans. Council director Tracey Carter said each of those stages contains elements that cost money - like public space and infrastructure changes - as well as elements that make money like commercial developments and apartments.

City of York council could end up acting as a property developer to push the scheme forward, documents show, and under that proposal there is a current £7.5 million funding gap which the authority will try to bridge with funding bids to things like the Local Economic Partnerships.

Cllr Gillies added: “There’s always a risk - but the bigger risk is doing nothing. We are ambitious, and we are confident that we can deliver this.”

The council is working with private sector land owners in the area, he added, and had already come to a deal with developers working on Ryedale House - who are covering the £180,000 cost of demolishing the authority’s Castle Mill car park in return for using it as a site compound while they convert the former office block into apartments.

Each of the four stages will be taken back to the executive for approval, with a fresh assessment of costs and investment options, project manager Andy Kerr added.