York Minster - Neighbourhood Plan and Net Zero Strategy
York Minster - Neighbourhood Plan and Net Zero Strategy
Our long-running collaboration with York Minster has involved the development and implementation of the Minster’s Neighbourhood Plan and Net Zero Strategy, which have pioneered new ground for cathedrals.
Our involvement with the Minster and its Precinct began over a decade ago with a Conservation Plan to support the award-winning ‘York Minster Revealed’ project. This comprehensive management tool supported a successful £12m application to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The Conservation Plan was followed by a masterplan which establishes a holistic and integrated approach to the management and development of the Precinct.
The masterplan takes the form of a Neighbourhood Plan in order to give planning policy weight and certainty to a series of major projects for improving visitor and conservation facilities. These include the Centre of Excellence for the Minister’s internationally recognised Stoneyard, designed by Tonkin Liu and due for completion in 2024. This is the first time that neighbourhood planning has been applied to a historic estate. It was developed in close collaboration with the local community, Historic England and York City Council, and was adopted as planning policy in 2022. In 2023, it won a RTPI Planning Excellence award and was named Religious Heritage Innovator of the Year by the Future of Religous Heritage (Europe).
Most recently, the Minster launched an advice note - which we were delighted to help prepare - to share our experience and tips with other cathedrals and heritage estates that are contemplating masterplanning (Europe).
We then produced a comprehensive Net Zero Strategy for the Precinct to help the Minster transition to a carbon-neutral estate over the next decade. The first elements of the Strategy include Caroe Architecture’s proposals for solar panels on the roof of the Cathedral.
You can read our guide to masterplanning and neighbourhood plans here. You can also read our Neighbourhood Plan here and find out more about the Net Zero Strategy here.
Client: Chapter of York
Awards
RTPI Planning Excellence Award (Yorkshire) 2023 - Winner
Religous Innovator of the Year 2023 (Future of Religous Heritage (Europe)