Not quite the case that the applicants were told there was ‘no chance’, seems Property Services at the council were quite encouraging: ‘Property Services has worked with our tenant, York Motor Yacht Club, to bring forward their proposals’, etc. More info is in an update at http://yorkstories.co.uk/down-by-the-riverside-antisocial-behaviour-etc/

Thankfully the application has been withdrawn. The bigger issue seems to be that we need to all be watching what applications are arriving at http://planningaccess.york.gov.uk/online-applications/ in future.

Anyone familiar with the riverside walk towards the Ings will recognise the view they enjoy today in the words of Alcuin’s poem:

“The fish-rich Ouse washes [York ]along with its gentle currents
Reaching along flowering meadows everywhere along its banks
The area is beautiful with woods and [small] hills here and there”

The riverside area York residents love today is thus part of a millennial heritage.
One of the objection comments on the planning application website even suggested that the environment and ecology there would be more or less unchanged since the Roman occupation.
It’s extremely unusual for descriptions of cities in the early middle ages to include this kind of characterisation of nature as well as the built urban area and its monuments.