STEPHEN LEWIS joins a roving council committee on a fact-finding walk

beside the River Ouse

WE are standing on the towpath on the west bank of the River Ouse under the shadow of Scarborough Bridge, looking across towards Museum Gardens. It is a typical October afternoon: bright and sunny, but with a real nip in the air.

"There's the riverbank and what you can make of it," says Quentin Macdonald, looking out over the water, "and the river itself and what you can make of it - whether it's boating, fishing, swimming or whatever." He takes another look at the wintry water. "I don't think swimming, perhaps..."

"There used to be a one-mile swimming race," chips in someone, helpfully.

Quentin beams. "Now that's exactly the sort of historical information that it would be great to dig up!" he says.

We're on a mission: to walk the banks of the Ouse where it passes through the city centre and see what could be done to make better use of them, and of the great river that rolls in between. Quentin - city councillor Quentin Macdonald, to give him his correct title - is chairman of the council leisure scrutiny board charged with making suggestions.

His remit is broad. He and other members of the scrutiny board - they include fellow city councillor and former Lord Mayor Irene Waudby - are keen to consider everything, from grand schemes such as a city centre walkway the length of the river's east bank between Ouse and Lendal bridges to the possibility of cleaning up graffiti or improving access to the riverside for people in wheelchairs.

Then there are ideas for making better use of the river itself. "What about a water bus service, or water taxi service?" asks Quentin. "There are all sorts of possibilities!"

As ever, the defining factor is likely to be money. One of Quentin's dreams is to see a footbridge across the river between the Ouse and Lendal bridges - from City Screen to the North Street gardens, for example.

"It would complement the Millennium Bridge," he says. "But could we get the money for it? Who knows? Money is going to be a big issue."

It always is, where local government is concerned. Clearly, anything as big as building a new bridge across the river or making a walkway along the riverbank is going to require the co-operation of all kinds of interests apart from the city council - owners of land and property along the river's edge not least among them - as well as a substantial injection of cash.

But that's no reason for ruling them out altogether. The scrutiny board's immediate task is to come up with suggestions. And it would be nice, says Quentin, to come up not only with some small tasks that could improve the city's riverside in the short term, but also some more ambitious longer-term projects too.

"There is the potential to make much more of the river more accessible," he says. "It's not used as much as it could be. The number of places that have chosen to turn their backs on the river - you'd hope that they may be able to turn towards it again, towards a river vision.

"I'm only chairing a scrutiny board. I don't have much money. It's going to take some kind of co-operative effort and a group of like-minded people to say why they would go and do something.

"But you have to create an element of enthusiasm. If you don't have enthusiasm, you're wasting your time."

Today, then, is about creating enthusiasm: about identifying all the things - some easy and short-term, some ambitious, long-term and possibly unrealistic - that could make York's riverfronts so much better. The scrutiny board will report back to council - and then, says Quentin, the idea will be to invite the people of York to come up with ideas of their own.

"In the end, it is their river," he says. "We want to hear people's views." He does the equivalent of a turn to camera, addressing the people of York directly. "So if you have an idea, write to the council!"

Our walk begins at Scarborough Bridge. The dual footpath and cycleway between Scarborough Bridge and Lendal Bridge is the first to receive comment. Cyclists use the side of the path nearest the river, pedestrians that furthest away - as they do at New Walk, south of the city centre.

"Is the cycle path on the right side?" Quentin muses. "When I walk along, I tend to walk in the cycle lane, because I want to be beside the river."

It's a valid point. So is his next observation. The hedge between the towpath and the new flats off Leeman Road is "sort of all right, but nothing to write home about," says Quentin.

And why on earth are the Memorial Gardens a little further along hiding behind a fence, rather than open to the river? It's because of the need to provide a backdrop from the other side for the war memorial, says an official hastily. "But maybe you could do that in another way?" says Quentin.

At Lendal Bridge, there's something else of concern. Looking across the river we can see where, at the north side of Museum Street, steps lead down to the riverside walk that goes up towards Museum Gardens.

A beautiful walk it is too. But there is an obvious problem. "How do you get down there in a wheelchair?" asks Quentin.

The short answer is, you don't. But, because of the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act, that may have to change.

Disabled access is a theme Quentin returns to a little further along, where the walkway skirts the North Street gardens and then dips down a shallow flight of steps to pass beside the York Moat House hotel - effectively barring the way for anyone in a wheelchair.

Looking across the river to the far bank, the lack of a walkway from the City Screen up beside the Guildhall to Lendal Bridge also becomes glaringly apparent. It is, Quentin concedes, the "obvious thing that's missing."

When the walkway outside City Screen was built, the idea always was eventually to link it up with Lendal Bridge, says city council property surveyor Val Inwood.

All agree it would be marvellous to have a walkway running the length of the Ouse from Lendal to Ouse bridges. But it's not going to be easy.

The council owns much of the riverfront on the Lendal Bridge side of City Screen - but it can't simply require the boatyard, which has a lease, to move elsewhere. And at the other end, by Ouse Bridge, ownership of the riverfront is much more complex. Could there be a walkway on stilts that doesn't encroach on property owners' riverbank rights, wonders Val? It's something to consider.

It's the idea of a new bridge that gets Quentin most excited, however. "Can't you just see a Ponte Vecchio with shops on all across there?" he says, leaning against the railings below the York Moat House hotel and gesturing at a group of people on the City Screen walkway opposite. "They're aching to come across."

Who knows? One day, they just may be able to.

Updated: 11:22 Tuesday, October 29, 2002