Joseph Rowntree Foundation and York Council to plan new 'model' community
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the City of York Council announced today plans for a new pioneering community on the Eastern edge of York. The £25million project on a 53-acre site will create a ‘model’ village that the Foundation hopes will set the standards for housing in the new century.
The Foundation, which also built the ground-breaking ‘model’ village of New Earswick in York at the turn of this century, will develop plans for this new community in partnership with the City of York Council, which owns most of the land. The development will provide up to 500 homes and community facilities. Residents are expected to move in by 2001 – the 100th birthday of New Earswick – and the Foundation hopes that like New Earswick the new village will become a model for housing developments across the country.
A master plan will be jointly commissioned by the Foundation and the Council, with a competition held to attract the very best designer for the site. The designer will work with local residents, businesses and others to make a reality of the plan and ensure that the very latest and best ideas are used to develop a place in which people are proud to live.
The Council’s Policy and Resources Committee will decide next Tuesday whether to go ahead with an assessment of the land and a plan for the site. If the committee does give the go-ahead, the Foundation will draw up an overall ‘Master Plan’. It has set aside £68,000 to fund this process and ensure that it gets the best advice from around the world. Building work would then begin next year and the village would be completed by 2002.
Roland Crooke, Director of Housing Operations at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “We want to build a community which reflects the priorities of the new Millennium, such as sustainability, affordability, safety and community values. All homes and facilities, for example, would be accessible to people with disabilities.”
Roy Wallington, Head of Strategy and Commissioning for the Council, said: “Local communities will be closely involved in the planning process. The design team will hold meetings with people who live and work around the site before they start work. They will also seek to find local people who are interested in becoming more closely involved in the process. I am sure that the scheme will bring benefits for those that live around the site as well as those who may live in the new village.”
