York BID rejuvenates the city’s riverside area!

​​​​​​​York BID is currently three quarters of the way through a Spring project to improve the appearance of York’s riverside infrastructure, with the help of partners across the city.

The project aims to refresh tired-looking benches, bike racks, bollards, bins, and other street furniture across York’s riverside area. This has been made possible by generous donations from Barclays and Middletons Hotel, which have entirely covered the cost of supplies.

The project started in January of this year, when the BID coordinated four Rejuvenation Days which saw over 50 volunteers help refresh over 150 pieces of individual infrastructure, in Parliament Street, High Ousegate, Coppergate, Piccadilly, Davygate, Lendal, and St Sampson’s Square.

The initiative started as just one of many great outputs from the Cleaning and Rejuvenation Partners meeting; a bimonthly gathering between York BID, City of York Council, York Civic Trust, Make It York, and York High Street Forum, which identified city centre infrastructure in need of attention.

For the current project, nearly 60 volunteers from across the city have contributed: Hilton York, Barclays, Yorkshire Building Society, Howl, Queens Hotel, McDonald’s, Premier Inn, Indie York, York Conservation Trust, Eboracum, York Civic Trust, York BID, City of York Council, Middlethorpe Hotel, Nuffield Health York Hospital, and even residents all shared their time. The team worked on the riverside area, refreshing street furniture on King’s Staith, King Street, Cumberland Street, Low Ousegate, Nessgate, Clifford Street, South Esplanade, Castlegate, Tower Gardens, Spurriergate, and Tower Street. The team is currently three quarters of the way through the project and have made great progress, completing over 300 pieces of individual infrastructure.

In preparation for the project, the York BID Street Cleaning team hot washed the area, cleaned off stickers and posters, and removed weeds and moss to help the riverside look its best. The Rejuvenation project builds on York BID and City of York Council’s partnership cleaning approach, coordinating cleaning schedules to ensure efficiency and best practice across the city.

Carl Alsop, Operations Manager at York BID, said: “These kinds of projects can often go under the radar; however, they make such a difference in the city and at the areas that need it most. The riverside is such a great part of York but has had a really tough time with flooding over the past few months, I’ve now seen firsthand how much of a difference this project has made in the area - just in time for some great weather!”

John Laud, Head of Corporate Banking for West and North Yorkshire at Barclays, said: “We try to look at the big picture at Barclays but sometimes that means getting the details consistently excellent, so a team of us were really pleased to help York BID in their efforts to rejuvenate some of the tired metal work in the city centre. It was a fun day in the sun, and we felt a sense of pride and personal achievement by giving our time and seeing the impact we had. It was great to see more people and more businesses joining in this time and I hope that can continue in the future York BID projects. Keep up the good work.”

Adam Wardale, General Manager of Middletons Hotel, said: “We were delighted to support York BID with the city’s rejuvenation project, it was great to see so many local businesses come together to assist the BID Team in revitalising areas of the city. Following York’s recent accolade as the number one city to visit in the country, it is crucial that we maintain and improve the appearance of our city – not only for visitors but also for local residents.”

There’s still a chance to get involved with this project – contact info@theyorkbid.com if you would like to join on Friday 24^th May or with future Rejuvenation days.