Urbanism
Environment
Design

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Yorkshire Forward launched its Urban Renaissance Programme in December 2001 to support the physical, social and economic regeneration of towns across the region. The first six towns of Barnsley, Doncaster, Grimsby, Huddersfield, Scarborough and Wakefield were followed in phase 2 by Bridlington, Halifax, Rotherham, Scunthorpe and the Five Towns of West Yorkshire; Castleford, Featherstone, Knottingly, Normanton and Pontefract. Now the three towns of Selby District;Tadcaster, Sherburn-in-Elmet and Selby, are joining the Urban Renaissance programme, with the aim of developing visions and strategies, and identifying projects for the next 25 years that will be both imaginative and achievable.Underpinning the Renaissance programme is an objective to support local capacity, not just local councils and partner agencies but also residents and businesses,through the setting up of 'Town Teams', so that the people who live in and invest in an area can be actively involved in imagining the future, identifying priorities for action and helping to support the realisation of projects.Town Teams are guided and inspired by teams of professionals led by members of Yorkshire Forward's Urban Renaissance Panel of consultants. In Selby District, URBED has been appointed to work with a 'Towns Team' that includes representatives of all three towns. In the first phase of work, until next spring, the Charter will be developed collaboratively between the Towns Team and the consultancy team, to establish a clear statement of vision for the future and to set out the principles for urban renaissance in the three towns.As well as vision, urban renaissance needs plans for action and investment, and so following the launch of the Charter the consultancy team will develop a series of masterplans for parts of the district where change is likely. These will be published in October 2005. As well as ensuring that future strategic development is in line with local needs, the masterplans will help to bring in funding to Selby District from agencies such as Yorkshire Forward.Work so far1. Visioning DayThe Visioning Day held on 20 November was the first public event for Selby Towns Renaissance. It followed a period of research and getting to know the District and its people by the consultancy team, including preliminary briefings by the council and partner agencies, and carrying out audits of the economy, environment and transport.The Visioning Day helped to generate ideas, exploring what local stakeholders think is good and bad in each town, what other places the three towns could aspire to be like, what they should be like in 15 years' time and identifying imaginative and achievable priorities and projects for getting there.A full report from the workshop can be downloaded from the box on the left. A film of the Visioning Day has also been made by filmmakers a sense of place. If you would like copies of the DVD, please contact Helene Rudlin in our Manchester office on 0161 200 5500.2. Working GroupsFollowing the Visioning Day, the URBED team has identified a number of emerging themes for the Selby Towns and the next stage will be to explore and develop these themes further with a number of 'working groups' within the Towns Team. The ideas generated at these workshops will contribute directly to the principles for Renaissance that will be set out in the Charter, to be launched in the spring. Six meetings are being held in January and February to explore these ideas. They will focus on the crosscutting themes of Business, Energy and Transport, and also on the specific issues in Tadcaster, Selby and Sherburn.The Tadcaster meeting took place on 11 January and the 'Listening to Business' meeting, arranged with Selby District Council's Active Business group, the Selby Industrial Association and the Selby Chamber of Trade and Commerce took place on 18 January at Selby Town Hall. The third workshop, exploring Sustainable Energy futures for Selby district, took place on 20 January.

The ideas generated at these initial workshops contributed directly to the principles for Renaissance that were set out in the Charter which can be accessed on this website.