Viscount Esher, who died at the weekend, set out his blueprint for the conservation of York in the Sixties. JO HAYWOOD asks how his controversial 250-page report helped shape the city in which we live today.

As welcomes go, it was hardly the warmest. When Lionel Gordon Baliol Brett, the fourth Viscount Esher, arrived in York in 1966, he was smuggled into the Guildhall and given a brisk lesson in Yorkshire etiquette.

"I was told by Mr Burke (railwayman and leader of the Labour group), in his solid Yorkshire drawl, 'we don't like consultants here'," he wrote in his autobiography, Our Selves Unknown (1985). "The Conservative boss was, if anything, even more unfriendly."

Their curmudgeonly greeting was not necessarily inspired by the man, but by his mission.

Esher, an architect and Eton-educated peer, had been commissioned by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government to undertake a study on preserving the centre of York.

"After some arguments with local authorities, not all of whom wished to be Whitehall guinea pigs, I was offered the choice of Chester, Bath and York," he wrote.

"York, I was told, would be the most worthwhile, but difficult, as York City Council was hostile."

Undaunted, he set up an office in Micklegate and got to work. Before long, the broad themes of his report began to emerge.

He identified the need to bring people back into the city centre, emphasising the importance of pedestrianisation and the exclusion of all through-traffic, and of retaining the human scale of the city.

His aim was to make York a museum and conference centre while retaining its position as a thriving shopping destination.

Esher's ideas soon began winning him valuable allies. Among them the then Archbishop of York, Dr Donald Coggan, the Evening Press and John Shannon, chairman of York Civic Trust, who he described as "a passionate lover of the walled city and a splendid speaker".

When his report finally emerged in 1968, it began with a tribute to the council and voluntary conservation bodies for maintaining York's ancient buildings, but said all would be in vain if the city's traffic problem was not taken firmly in hand.

He recommended that Bootham Bar be closed to traffic, access to Micklegate Bar restricted to private cars and only residents' cars, clearly labelled, be allowed through Walmgate and Monk Bars.

Esher also suggested the construction of four multi-storey car parks in Skeldergate, Merchantgate, Gillygate and Monkgate.

As for the Minster, he believed it should be surrounded by paved areas, lawns and trees so as to restore to the area "a precinctual sense of quiet and space worthy of the magnificence of the buildings".

There was a shortage of money at the time, so some of his ideas were not implemented until long after the publication of his report in 1968.

For example, his suggestion that the Aldwark-Bedern area of the city be cleared to make way for houses was not carried out until the mid-80s.

Some of his ideas were, of course, not implemented at all.

"He proposed a sort of fly-over car park above Piccadilly. Not along it, over it," said Alison Sinclair, building conservationist and chairman of York Open Planning Forum. "Thankfully, that was never taken up." She found herself in opposition to Esher at the recent Coppergate inquiry, during which his report was cited as an integral part of the case for large-scale development of the area around Clifford's Tower.

Esher claimed the whole Castle Precinct "breathes the atmosphere of planning blight and indecision". When it came to the 2002 Coppergate inquiry, however, decisiveness ruled and the redevelopment scheme was thrown out.

"My main concern about the Esher report is that ideas regarding conservation and the enhancement of historic elements have moved on immensely since the 60s," said Miss Sinclair.

"His proposals have been superseded by more up-to-date thinking and philosophy."

Peter Brown, company secretary of York Civic Trust, agreed that, with hindsight, some of Viscount Esher's proposals were unsuitable, but his overall vision remains impeccable.

"The view we have always taken is that his proposals were a package deal," he said. "You could move elements around, emphasising this and diminishing that, but you had to accept it as a whole for it to really work.

"You have to understand that he wasn't just trying to change the city, he was trying to change hearts and minds."

One of Esher's lesser-known proposals was to bring students from the then fledgling university into the city by offering them housing in Micklegate. He believed this would have a positive, maturing effect.

"It was a shame the city didn't follow this plan," said Mr Brown. "But at the time the council did not have a very expansive attitude towards the university. They regarded it as more of a nuisance than an asset.

"Bringing students into the city adds a certain liveliness and intellectual maturity to the area. Something I'm sure the Micklegate Run could have benefited from."

Without the Esher report, York would not be the same city as it is today. Just one of his guiding principles, that nothing should be built higher than the clerestory of the Minster, has insured that it remains a resolutely low-rise city.

But his report is now 36 years old. It belongs to another century.

Is it time for York to be scrutinised again by an Esher of the 21st century?

"Viscount Esher was a great man who played a fundamental role in recent York history," said Mr Brown.

"He has been used as a guiding principle for more than 30 years, but now we need a new guide. We need someone of his stature and expertise who can understand the big picture.

"York does not have a proper master plan. Everything is handled piecemeal. We have sub-strategies for transport and sub-strategies for housing, but we don't have a fully-rounded vision of the future.

"The city is crying out for a new visionary."

Viscount Esher, who died on Friday just nine days short of his 91st birthday, returned to York on numerous occasions after 1968 to see how his blueprint was being put into practice, and to continue his impassioned campaign for the area around the Minster to be transformed into a green, leafy, traffic-free zone.

At a Mansion House dinner to mark the 20th anniversary of his report, John Shannon, who was still chairman of the Civic Trust, presented him with a souvenir plate and the city's thanks.

Because of the Esher report, he said, the people of York could walk the streets to their full stature, undiminished by the buildings, and free to enjoy the history and culture around them.

"Let us not forget," he added, "that the report was basically about human dignity.

"It was about people."

Updated: 09:28 Tuesday, July 13, 2004