York BID rejuvenates the city across five days!

Image credit: Gareth Buddo

York BID hosts rejuvenation days with help from key partners, to improve the appearance of infrastructure across the city centre.

The project focuses on refreshing tired-looking benches, bike racks, bollards, bins, and other street furniture across the city centre. York Racecourse has kindly donated a generous amount for the required supplies.

The rejuvenation days are 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, York High Street Forum and Make It York, who all identified city centre infrastructure as in need of attention.

The rejuvenation days are a partnership initiative coordinated by York BID and supported by the above parties, with both HSBC and Barclays volunteering their time, too.  

The initiative started on Parliament Street, and also includes High Ousegate, Coppergate, and Piccadilly. Due to the high numbers of volunteers involved, Davygate, Lendal, St. Sampson’s Square, North Street (plus gardens) and Wellington Row have also been added to the list of targeted areas.

Carl Alsop, Operations Manager at York BID, said:

“It’s been great to see rejuvenation for the city, with plenty more hard work to come. York BID is sincerely grateful to everyone who came out during the cold weather spell and look forward to welcoming more volunteers to the project.”

Sarah Loftus, Managing Director of Make It York, said:

“We were thrilled to be able to take part in the city’s rejuvenation project and support York BID, helping to breathe life back into Parliament Street and improve the appearance of key infrastructure within the city. It was great to see so many different businesses volunteering their time and sharing a laugh. We painted tired looking benches, bike racks and bollards… and maybe got a little paint on ourselves too!”

William Derby, Chief Executive & Clerk of York Racecourse, said:

“We are pleased to support York BID and their volunteers in their fantastic work in the city centre.”

An additional day has been added to facilitate the extra demand where members of the Probation Service will help out with the project. Furthermore, a thorough prep of the streets conducted by City of York Council, followed by a hot wash of pavements cleaned by York BID, has been planned once the project is complete.

There’s still an opportunity to get involved – please contact info@theyorkbid.com if you would like to help with this initiative or future rejuvenation projects.