With the Without Walls debate in full swing, STEPHEN LEWIS asks Sir Ron Cooke for his ideas for the future of the city

WHEN Sir Ron Cooke first came to York a decade ago, a 'senior York citizen' took him to one side and gave him a quiet piece of advice. "Just you remember, lad," he told the man who as vice-chancellor was to take York University firmly into the academic top flight. "York is poor, proud and pretty."

Sir Ron doesn't have much time for that philosophy.

"Maybe it was once," he says. "But it isn't now. It is set to become one of the leading internationally competitive cities in England." Instead of 'poor, proud and pretty' he prefers three 'p's of his own: pragmatic, progressive and prosperous.

Anyone who has lived in the city over the last decade can't fail to have noticed how it has changed. When he first arrived in 1992, Sir Ron says, the city was depressed and the outlook bleak. "We had 11 per cent unemployment, the railway works had gone, Rowntree's had been taken over, and so on. People were not optimistic.

"We've had a revolution since then. There has been a revolution in the Internet, massive growth of financial services, huge development of the building industry and the university, and a unitary authority." Alongside those economic and employment changes have come massive social changes, he says - a fall in crime, a surge in what he calls 'empty nesters' (comparatively well-off couples whose children have flown the nest) and more commuting to Leeds.

He could perhaps have added to that list spiralling house prices which are putting homes beyond the reach of many ordinary first-time buyers, and the threat to pubs and clubs which could be seen as evidence of a decline in a traditional way of life.

Clearly, there has been much that has happened over the last decade that has been good - but also some things that have been less so. Which, in a sense, is Sir Ron's point.

York, he believes, has the capacity to transform itself into one of the most successful urban centres in Europe. But it won't just happen by itself - and if we really want the city to fulfil its potential and to become the kind of city we want it to become, we have to be very clear about exactly what that is.

That is why, as part of the ongoing 'Without Walls' debate - the latest meeting of which takes place today - he agreed to talk about his own vision for York.

There have been many visionaries in the past, he says, who have helped make the city what it is today - the likes of William Etty, George Hudson, Lord Esher and JB Morrell to name but a few.

Now we have to decide what kind of a York we want to pass on in our turn.

"Do we want to become a suburb of Leeds?" he asks. "Do we want to become the administrative heart of the new European region of Yorkshire? Do we want to become the Cambridge of the north, or even the English Princeton? Or how about Montpellier?"

Montpellier, he says, is a French city very similar to York in size and in its medieval heritage, which has succeeded in turning itself into one of the most vibrant cities on the Mediterranean seaboard.

If York in turn is to fulfil its potential and become one of the best little cities in Europe, Sir Ron says, we need to establish some principles to guide its development - and some clear objectives at which to aim.

York's passport to becoming the best, he says, is to take advantage of the outstanding quality of life it offers to attract the best and brightest entrepreneurs who will continue to create wealth and opportunity for the rest.

He believes the city's combination of beauty, history, top-class facilities - including schools and shops, theatre and arts - its excellent transport links and the stunning landscape around give it a great head start.

He likes to use the term world class when describing York. Much of the city's architectural heritage is world class, he says - as are many of its tourist attractions and its products, everything from KitKat to insurance and Portakabins. On top of that is the city's reputation for world-class research, from cracking the genetic code of the plant arabidopsis - a world first - to breakthroughs in the fight against cervical and prostate cancer.

But if York is to continue to attract and retain the new blood that will enable it to further develop into the world-class city it ought to be, there is much still to be done, he says.

First on his list of priorities is for the city fully to embrace the information revolution.

That means broadband and then keeping up to date with rapidly changing technology in every aspect of the city's life, from business to tourism and public services.

Next comes sorting out the city's transport problems. City centre traffic is one issue: but if anything even more important for the long term is getting York its own airport, he says. Rail is a wonderful form of transport within its limitations.

"But not for the entrepreneur who has to pop over to Berlin and back for the day."

Expecting busy international businessmen to travel to Leeds/Bradford or Manchester to connect to flights isn't good enough, when even cities such as Norwich have their own airports, he adds. York must have its own air links - and the obvious place for a York International Airport is Elvington.

Third, he says, York has to get a grip on its planning problems.

It is vital to avoid the kind of expensive and damaging confrontation that happened over Coppergate II, he says - perhaps by consulting with developers and the ordinary people of York earlier in the planning process.

And there must be a "robust local plan" in place that protects the 'green wedges' that are part of York's unique appeal, allows for better use to be made of the city's riverside and demands the best use be made of the key York Central site - the so-called tear drop.

"York Central is absolutely vital to the future of York," he says. "It must be a wonderful, world class, 21st century urban development. Anything else is not acceptable."

Finally, he says, we must market York more effectively - and not make many more blunders like ditching the name Royal York Hotel in favour of Le Meridien.

If York can achieve all of these things, then it can become a city where "entrepreneurs and other wealth creators will choose to live, and where they will flourish" - a city with a balanced, diverse economy that does not have all its jobs eggs in one basket.

With the educational and other services in place to educate the city's people to take advantage of the new opportunities, everybody should be able to share in its prosperity.

Updated: 12:22 Tuesday, November 26, 2002