Tales of the river bank

City of York Council's Leisure Scrutiny Board met last night to discuss ways of developing the city's rivers to make them more attractive to visitors.

Ideas included installing lighting under bridges to give the city a more continental feel and developing a continuous walkway along the River Foss.

Coun John Galvin said he felt that the council should improve the facilities available for those travelling on boats.

He said: "We need to look at providing suitable and well-serviced moorings in the city centre."

He said that improved moorings would encourage people travelling through York on boats to Ripon to stop and pay a visit to the city.

Peter Stephenson, of the Environment Agency, told the meeting that they should also encourage anglers to come to the river to fish. He said the rivers in the York area had good quality water and the River Ouse was one of the few rivers in the country to have an increasing population of salmon.

He said: "The numbers of salmon have been increasing slowly, but steadily, over the past three or four years."

Mr Stephenson added that York would be a good venue to hold the Environment Agency's national fishing competition in the future.

Nigel Sheppard, of British Waterways, said there were 980,000 anglers and 570,000 leisure boats in Britain and improving the rivers could bring a big boost to tourism in the city.

Councillors were keen to investigate the possibilities of developing transport on the river, including introducing water taxis and transporting freight by river to reduce congestion in the city.

Have you ideas about how York can make the best of its rivers? The Evening Press and Yorkshire Water have teamed up to offer schools, community groups and charitable organisations the chance to win £400 if they can come up with an idea to improve a local river. Entries should be sent to Rosemary Cook, Newsroom, Evening Press, 76/86 Walmgate, York, Y01 9YN, or email

Updated: 10:44 Thursday, February 27, 2003