"My heart-stopping moments planning the Pope's York visit"

As a member of the planning committee for the papal visit to York under the skilful chairmanship of the then Town Clerk/City Solicitor, David Ansbro, Maxine Gordon’s Nostalgia piece certainly brought back many happy memories.

However, its actual planning certainly had its heart-stopping moments.

Traffic issues were always high on the agenda.

At one meeting at the police HQ in Fulford Road it was the sole item on the agenda.

Prior to the meeting itself, the police were shown a video recording of the previous papal visit to Dublin. I arrived slightly early and have a clear recollection of ashen-faced police officers, led by their liaison officer, Inspector Bennington, filing out of their viewing of the Dublin performance. He told us subsequently that the Irish authorities had taken a distinctly light touch ‘DIY’ approach to the potential traffic problems in their fair city and as a result the Gardai were still dealing with their aftermath 48 hours later.

It was quickly resolved that York would need a much firmer ‘hands on’ approach. In the event five satellite car-parks were established in a ring around York, combined with well-organised bussing arrangements and rigorous traffic control measures in the city itself.

READ MORE: Remembering The Pope's £1m visit to York in 1982

I was subsequently informed on good authority that the Inland Revenue, with their traditional devotion to the public good, had employed one of their officials on the bank holiday of the visit, to cruise around York looking for local farmers anxious to supplement their income by undercutting the official car parks – and I presume, carefully scrutinising their subsequent tax returns to see if perchance they had forgotten to include these one-off receipts.

As your report mentions, the visit took place following the outbreak of the Falklands War. This was another headache for the organisers, but a financially alarming one for the commercial organisations involved, many of whom had invested serious money in the event, in connection with the production of souvenirs etc. Most of them of course had taken out insurance policies but had not given any thought to whether their policy contained a war exclusion clause. Insurance cover was not the only concern about the effect of the Falklands War. Technically the Pope was a head of state and official protocol normally indicated representation of the armed forces. On this occasion, almost predictably, the MOD was dithering as to whether their official representatives should attend. Equally predictably, the eventual decision was a fudge: service representatives could attend, but not in uniform – and so they did. Fortunately, however, this judgment of Solomon did not apply to the regimental band of the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards who duly performed for the vast assembly in full dress uniform – either that, or the message from the MOD never reached them.

Images of the Pope's visit to York on May 31, 1982

Quite apart from issues of traffic management and diplomatic protocol, the presence of an estimated 200,000 people gathered on the Knavesmire produced a myriad of practical issues, not least of which were those relating to public health, ranging from the provision of loos to predicted births and deaths.

The statisticians had solemnly warned us that with a gathering of such numbers in one place for several hours, we would have to anticipate both. I cannot recall the precise numbers but provision for them had to be made. Fortunately neither was ever required. On a more relaxed note, I have a vivid recollection of a group of young Down syndrome patients with their accompanying nuns. Both seemed totally overjoyed. It was a very moving sight. As someone not normally attracted to vast crowds as they don’t always show the British public at their best, it was refreshing to have seen and recall an event when everyone was definitely happy and on their very best behaviour.