Community engagement

Community engagement plays an essential role in shaping what York Central will become.

September 2023

Pop up events outside Betty’s Tea Rooms on St Helen’s Square answered questions about York Central and captured ideas for future phases of the project.

Visit our news page for more information.

August 2023

Free, family friendly events took place at York Central in August to uncover what has been found on site so far.

Visit our news page for more details about the events.

Couldn’t make to the archaeology events? 

View our York Central archaeology page and find out what has been uncovered on-site.

June 2023

In June 2023 the York Central team took part in events with the Big Tent Festival at York Minster. There were panel discussions about community regeneration, a walking tour of the site and a pop up event for people to come along and find about more details about the scheme and share their feedback.

March 2023

In March 2023 the plans for the next stages of the York Central development were announced including updates on a proposed Government Hub and New Square. Members of the public and businesses across York were invited to join public engagement events at two city venues and online:

Couldn’t make it to the events?

You can still view all the engagement presentations and material below.

View a video of  the proposed New Square and Government Hub

The online survey for the latest round of engagement on the new Square closed on 22nd March 2023 and the feedback is being incorporated into the next stage of designs. We are always to keen to hear your feedback and if you would like to share your thoughts, views and ideas for future development at York Central, email us at: yorkcentral@homesengland.gov.uk.

We will continue to share design updates to York Central as your feedback is incorporated and the proposals progress. Future community engagement details will be listed on our Have your say page and future planning applications to City of York Council will be linked from our Planning page.

November 2022

In November 2022 the plans for the next stages of the York Central development were announced including a proposed Government Hub and new public square. Members of the public and businesses across York were invited to join public engagement events at two city venues and online.

Couldn’t make it to these events?

You can still view all presentations…

Watch a recording of the online engagement event 

July 2022

In July 2022 a major milestone was reached as Homes England entered into a contract with John Sisk and Son Ltd to deliver over £100m of vital infrastructure at York Central.

Works began on the infrastructure and preparing the site for development in Summer 2022. The first phase is anticipated to be complete by 2025.

See below for the latest notifications and updates regarding planned works:

• 23 June 2023: Letter to residents re: chance movement Seldon Road
• 13 June 2023: Letter to residents re: Leeman Road new junction works
• 23 May 2023: Letter to residents re: Piling works and new road construction
• 15 April 2023: Letter to residents re: Concrete work and new road construction
• 30 March 2023: Letter to residents re: Seldon Road preparatory works
• 15th March 2023: Letter to residents re: Preparatory works taking place at Severus Bridge/Water End
• 6th March 2023: Letter to residents re: Marble Arch Tunnel Closures for vehicles
• 10th February 2023: Letter to residents re: planned works at Millennium Green
• 7th November 2022: Letter to Leeman Road residents re: pedestrian footbridge removal overnight works
• 17th October 2022: Letter to Holgate Residents re: Cinder Lane temporary diversion of public right of way
• 3rd October 2022: Letter to Carlisle-Carleton St residents re: temporary evening works
• 1st September 2022: Letter to Carlisle-Carleton St residents re: site office works
• 10th August 2022: Letter to residents re: initial works to erect fencing and clear vegetation to enable infrastructure development

Previous engagement 2019 – 2021

Planning permission for infrastructure works to unlock the potential of York Central was granted in November 2021. Read more here.

Information about the Phase 1 Infrastructure reserved matters application that was approved in November 2021 at City of York Planning Committee can be found here.

These proposals built on the material which was submitted as part of the outline planning application and drew from the previous rounds of engagement feedback and activities.

Details of the public consultation and engagement activities to date can be found here.

You can also download the exhibition boards used in the 2019 consultation here.

You can view the results from the masterplan consultation here, which saw nearly 6,000 comments and contributions left both online and at the 43 events held over the six week Festival of York Central.

For updates on York Central follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

You can download a full copy of the masterplan exhibition boards here.

A summary of the York Central engagement strategy is also available here.

Previous engagement 2016 – 2018

York Central Partnership has undertaken significant community engagement to date to help inform development proposal to date. 

My York Central public workshops

From Spring 2018 to April 2021 the partnership held public workshops focusing on movement and the masterplan, organised in collaboration with My York Central.

You can download the summary of movement workshop here and the masterplan and governance workshop here.

Workshop presentations can be downloaded by clicking on these links: traffic analysis, movement, masterplan and governance. The National Railway Museum’s movement presentation can be downloaded here.

Masterplan Consultation
In March 2018 the ‘Festival of York Central’ was organised by the York Central Partnership as part of its ongoing community engagement. More than 43 events were held over the six week festival and residents were encouraged to share their views and aspirations for the York Central site and feedback on the emerging masterplan.

The feedback from the masterplan consultation can be downloaded here.

Access Consultation
In late 2017 the York Central Partnership undertook a consultation to help them decide on a preferred location for the new main access road for York Central.

You can download the full Access Options Consultation Report here.

The access consultation material can be viewed here.

Have your say
In 2016 a Have your say consultation was organised for York residents to share their thoughts on some very early stage, high-level plans that examined the potential for York Central. The results of what you told us can be downloaded here.

If you would like to view the responses received in the feedback forms from the access options consultation, please email yorkcentral@york.gov.uk