By one part of the railway museum, looking across towards the other, Leeman Road

Recently we’ve had a quick visit to Cinder Lane, and then to Leeman Road, following the progress of work on the York Central site, where demolition work has started, following approval of the planning applications for the development. As I mentioned previously, there’s been a public inquiry on the proposed ‘stopping up’ (partial closure) of Leeman Road. The inquiry was underway while I was writing the above, and has now finished.

I’m a bit late to all of this, for various reasons, but since I have read more about it I wanted to add a few more notes/thoughts, in this ‘resident’s record of York and its changes’, as it brings together elements of quite a few things I’ve written about many times in the past. But I’m trying to break it up into pages of reasonable length. (They’ll all be tagged YorkCentral.)

York Central, in general

The fact that the site clearance work has started on York Central has been presented as significant progress on this large and complex ‘brownfield’ site. A report prepared for a meeting of the city council’s Executive on 22 April states that ‘the delivery of York Central’ has been a council priority for well over two decades. And that now

York Central has moved from being a long held ambition to a current reality.
– (source (PDF)

It continues:

The enabling works to prepare the site have now commenced. IP1 works are underway to demolish the former Unipart, Freightliner and Concrete Works buildings, site clearance and track lifting ahead of IP2 works to construct the access spine road and Boulevard, add the pedestrian deck to the Severus Bridges, build the access bridge over the East Coast Main Line( ECML) reroute utilities and undertake works to Millennium Green. Despite the challenges we still face with the ongoing Covid 19 pandemic, we are poised to finally deliver on the city’s long held ambition to develop York Central.

That sets it in context. Clearly a huge amount of work has gone into these plans, from so many people, for so long.

A major part of it all is the redevelopment of the railway museum. (Which we used to call the National Railway Museum.)

I have to say that it was clear to me, when walking around with a camera recently, and looking at it more carefully, how a lot of this area around the railway museum could be said to look quite ‘tired’ and dated now. Kind of 1970s meets 19th century with a road through the middle. Though I wouldn’t have thought about it much if it weren’t for the radical plans to change it all, as part of the York Central development.

Vision 2025 – Railway Museum plans

The museum has ambitious plans as it approaches its 50 year anniversary (in 2025). According to its website the museum is

poised to become the cultural anchor—the heartbeat—of the York Central development

To do this it envisages a new Central Hall.

Sensitively and sustainably designed by UK-based architects Feilden Fowles, the building will reference historic locomotive ’roundhouses’. Clad in recycled copper and with high, glazed ceilings with timber radials, the building will be spectacular inside and out, creating a world class-welcome.

Design for Central Hall, Railway Museum, by Feilden Fowles

This isn’t ‘news’, but when it was news, I think many of us may have been distracted by other things. Now I’m paying proper attention, I can see that it’s a splendid-looking thing, References roundhouses and includes recycled copper? Fantastic. Sounds ‘right up my street’, as they say.

But it isn’t literally up my street, and if it was I might have looked at things in a different way. Indeed have been trying to look at things in a different way, in more detail, because the building of this structure means the closure of part of a long-established route.

This new Central Hall

will span the road which dissects the museum

says the railway museum website. I think that should be bisects? – but anyway … when it says ‘span’ it means close part of.

The road was there for quite a while before the museum was, and, as previously mentioned, along it there’s some housing, where quite a few people live, and at the end of it there’s quite a large area of housing, where rather a lot of people live, and not surprisingly, they’re all rather reliant on their route into town, which has been there for quite a long time. Hence the campaign against the closure of the part of Leeman Road the museum wants to acquire for its planned redesign.

I don’t drive, and don’t generally have much reason to travel along the length of Leeman Road, unless I’ve walked up that way to take photos for this website. I’ve been aware of the campaign to oppose the closure. I didn’t really want to spend time on looking into it in further detail, but did, and recognise how many hours the local residents and local councillors must have put into it, to be presenting their case at the public inquiry recently.

As the plan I included on the previous page shows, there is to be a new road through the York Central development, and pedestrian and cycle routes intended to replace the closed part of Leeman Road. Which would mean, eventually, when it’s built, less traffic wending its way through the areas of housing on Leeman Road, as it does now.

It could be said that those who are opposed to it are just ‘resistant to change’, or opposing necessary progress, and that those who have campaigned against it are just thinking of their own interests, and that we should be grateful to have this nationally important/world-class museum in our city and do all we can to accommodate it.

But … this impartial observer, trying to understand the detail, can understand why those who oppose it so strongly have opposed it. The ‘devil’s in the detail’, as they say. I can’t cover all the detail here, but see the previous page for a helpful clear plan showing which part of the road this relates to.

There is apparently to be pedestrian access through the museum when it’s open, intended to replace the direct route that Leeman Road currently takes, but outside of opening hours it means going the long way round. And it seems reasonable to challenge the closure of a long-established right of way.

A recent document (PDF) made available as one of many connected with the public inquiry is a legal agreement on the proposed ‘permissive’ route through the museum grounds. There’s a long list of conditions, (including no spitting … a bit 19th century?), and possibly having to have your bag searched. That’s a bit different from the current open road that we can all at present progress down quite freely.

The issue is now with experts who have listened to the various viewpoints and will make their decision in due course.

Update: 23 Sept 2021

Local media reports today:

Great news – or a huge two-fingers to York? Leeman Road will close, rules Transport Secretary (York Mix)

Grant Shapps gives green light to close Leeman Road in York (York Press)

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Emerging from the tunnel

Previously, we headed through the Marble Arch tunnel to have a wander along Cinder Lane, behind the station. This time we’re emerging from the tunnel to have a quick walk along Leeman Road, with photos taken a few weeks back, on 19 April.

This led me to think more about the proposed closure of Leeman Road, and the railway museum expansion plans.

As pictured above, we emerge from the tunnel to a rather cluttered assemblage of signs and railings, and a metal footbridge over the road.

We pass the Railway Museum. Just past it, across the road, demolition is underway on one of the buildings being removed for the York Central redevelopment.

Demolition of concrete works, off Leeman Road

It was a concrete works, apparently.

Though I may have given the impression in the past of wanting to hang on to every old industrial building in this area, that isn’t the case. I wasn’t even aware of this one.

I walked a bit further along Leeman Road, having read references to York Central including tree clearance works close to Bishopfields Drive, a road I’ve never been down and thought I would.

Leeman Road

It’s not a handsome road, Leeman Road. Functional, industrial, commercial. It heads off away from the city centre round the edge of the railway lands, under a bridge under the railway line and towards a large area of mainly terraced housing. (We’re not going that far on this occasion, though I have previously, quite a few times.).

I’m not sure how much traffic it carries at busier times, but it seems generally quiet when I’m up here.

Just past the demolition site of the concrete works is quite a large development of interlinking streets, a fairly recent build. A couple of photos I have from back in 2004 suggest it was partly built by then.

Phoenix Boulevard and connecting streets, off Leeman Road

It’s interesting, as it seems to have taken quite a chunk out of what used to be called the ‘teardrop’ site. I’m not sure why this area of land was developed when others weren’t. It’s apparently called St Peter’s Quarter, though I hadn’t realised that until I was compiling this page.

The housing is in a style I don’t think I’ve seen elsewhere in York (though clearly I haven’t been to every part of town). I had a walk to the far edge of it, where there’s a green space, with part of the York Central site on the other side. I couldn’t see anything much from there as there was still a lot of tree and shrub coverage.

The community of houses here felt very ‘self-contained’, which I guess it would as it’s on the edge of a large brownfield site. The majority of the Leeman Road area housing is quite some way further down Leeman Road.

Next to St Peter’s Quarter are just two short terraced streets, apparently connected with the old foundry buildings I visited many years back. (See this very old page from summer 2004 and this equally old page on the nearby railway lands.)

There used to be a pub here too, the Junction. That was demolished and replaced with housing.

Time to head back towards town, past the Railway Museum. Which I used to call the National Railway Museum, or NRM, but it’s apparently had a rebranding.

Railway Museum, Leeman Road

A major part of the redevelopment of York Central is the ambitious plan for a radical overhaul of the Railway Museum. It would involve the closure of part of Leeman Road, as an official notice on a lamppost reminded me.

Notice on lamppost regarding public inquiry over road closure

In recent days the public inquiry on this road closure has been taking place, and I’ve got around to reading more about it, as I’ve been meaning to for some time. But as I’m trying to keep these pages to a reasonable and readable length, I’ll add something about that another time. Tomorrow perhaps, as my ‘May daily’ idea is going well so far.

Thanks for reading. As always, your virtual coffees are welcome in support of this long-running record of York and its changes.

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Leeman Road Millennium Green, June 2016

Pictured above is Leeman Road Millennium Green, off Water End, on a June evening last year.

And here it is yesterday evening:

Leeman Road Millennium Green, 8 Sept 2017

As mentioned on the previous page, two of the options for the access road to York Central put this place under threat. From the available information on the consultation website it looks like one of them, ‘Western 01′, is less damaging than the other (Western 02). Western 01 stays nearer the edge of this charming green space, Western 02 appears to go through the middle of it, which presumably would destroy much of what you see in the photos above.

There has been local media coverage of the York Central access road consultation, but I haven’t seen online any attempts to look more closely as this place under threat. I thought someone should attempt to represent the place and its charms. I cycle past regularly, and I’ve walked through it a couple of times before, but went up to Water End again yesterday evening to take more photos and try to picture how the proposed road options might work.

The photo on the previous page was taken from the bridge over the railway lines on Water End. Apparently it’s called Severus Bridge – I never knew this, until compiling this page and looking at a few old maps.

Moving to the left a bit gives us a better view of more trees, the edge of the Millennium Green.

View from Water End, rail lines by Millennium Green, 8 Sept 2017

There’s a short stretch of road here, leading down to the railway lines, presumably just a service road for Network Rail. But it’s also one of the ways in to the green space known as Millennium Green, so I headed that way.

View along Water End (towards Clifton Bridge)

There’s a bench here, with plaques. I hope that if the access road does start here someone will carefully relocate it to somewhere suitable.

Bench, Water End

Down by the railway lines at the bottom of that short stretch of road there is quite a large area alongside Millennium Green where there’s nothing much of interest. Here we’re looking back to Severus Bridge and Water End.

By the railway lines, alongside Millennium Green, looking back to Water End and Severus Bridge over the rail lines

The York Central access road option called ‘Western 01‘ is shown in the plans in roughly this location. If this route was selected there would be some damage to Millennium Green, as presumably some trees and other vegetation would need to be removed in this area near the rail lines, but the impact would be less damaging than the ‘Western 02′ option. Western 01 would cost more than the other options, but then there are different types of ‘cost’ to consider, environmental costs perhaps.

There’s a track down here leading into Millennium Green. At its entrance is a dog poo bin, one of those unattractive necessities, so it doesn’t look that promising at first. But I turned round and looked back, and got this photo, as the evening sun sank a bit lower, behind Severus Bridge.

Evening sun, Leeman Road Millennium Green, 8 Sept 2017

We arrive on an area of grass with a large triangular mosaic.

Mosaic, Leeman Road Millennium Green

The information for the York Central access road consultation mentions this mosaic, that it may be damaged by the access road ‘Western’ options.

To be fair, it’s showing quite a lot of damage already, presumably from weathering over the years.

But it’s still a delightful piece of work, representing flowers and wildlife but also specific and recognisable local buildings.

Mosaic, Leeman Road Millennium Green

And railway carriages too. While you’re down here in Millennium Green the sound of passing trains is a regular feature.

Mosaic, Leeman Road Millennium Green

It’s not clear how much of Millennium Green would be lost if ‘Western 02′ access road option is chosen, but it looks from the plans as if the road would destroy much of it.

Path through Millennium Green, 8 Sept 2017

The path through the green area leads to a small bridge over the beck and round to the corner near the houses of Garnet Terrace, which marks the edge of the built-up Leeman Road residential area. Most of the houses in the area are small terraced houses with yards, not gardens, so this is their green space.

I headed back towards Water End along Garnet Terrace. Presumably that side of the Millennium Green, nearer to the houses, would be retained even under the ‘Western 02′ option, but a much smaller part of it. Obviously the residents are worried about the threat to their wonderful green space here, as a notice on a lamp post at the edge of it made clear.

Notice on lamp post: ‘Save our wildlife area’

The light was fading, time to head home. Just before I got back to the main road I looked across Millennium Green and admired the handsome Poppleton Road School, a bit of it visible through a gap in the trees. And I wondered how many of these trees would survive the construction of the York Central access road, if Water End is where it ends up being.

View across Millennium Green with Poppleton Road School in the distance

There’s more on the consultation and how to add your comments on another page I’ve just added to accompany this one. There’s also a Google map to show the location.

The consultation on the access road options closes soon: 13 September 2017.

. . . . .

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Street scene: corner of Bright St and Salisbury Terrace, 16 April 2006

After our perusal of a since-demolished pub called The Junction, I thought we could stop by this street corner, where Bright Street meets Salisbury Terrace, another junction, not far away.

A long walk across York on this day ten years ago took us through this part of the Leeman road area, where there’s a shop on the corner. I’d been struck by the interesting-looking building opposite — St Barnabas Church Hall. The photo above was included on that old page, but only in a very small version. Because back then most people didn’t have fast broadband connections and so photos on web pages were smaller.

A lot has changed since then, and not just in terms of assembling web pages for you, dear readers. Some Googling for information on the church hall pictured tells me that it’s now called the Barnabas Centre and is run by a church group, but not the established church (which is represented locally by St Barnabas’s church, not far away).

As far as I know the corner shop, Leeman Stores, is still there, or was last year when the Google Street View cameras captured it. Presumably it’s well-used and profitable, as it has survived when so many other corner shops haven’t. The fact that there isn’t a Tesco Express or Sainsbury’s Local in the area might also have something to do with it.

Read all about it …

The other thing I notice about the photo above is the A-board advertising the local Press, with that day’s headline. I took a closer photo of it too, zooming in. This was presumably because it mentioned something of significance and interest at the time, a long-running controversy.

Our local press was still at that point called the Evening Press, though the A-board poster emphasised that it was the ‘compact’ version of it, reduced from its earlier broadsheet size (and its previous title of the Yorkshire Evening Press). I wonder how many daily copies were sold in 2006. I wonder how many daily copies are sold now. Not many, probably.

On that day ten years ago it proclaimed ‘GALLOWAY PLEDGE ON ARC LIGHT’ — referring to council leader Steve Galloway and the highly controversial issue at that time, where the new Arc Light Centre would be built.

Arc Light

A Press story dated 17 April 2006 (Protest group’s Arc Light appeal) includes the following, to which the headline presumably refers:

At a full council meeting last week, leader Steve Galloway, pictured, pledged to defend “minorities” from the “forces of the Right” and continue the consultation process.

The Press archives include many stories on this issue (see ‘More information’, below) – a reminder of how difficult it was to find a site for the new Arc Light centre.

Demolition, demolition, demolition

At the time of the above photo the Arc Light occupied the Bullnose building at the end of Leeman Road, near the NRM, opening there in 1999. In 2004 it celebrated its 5th anniversary with a get-together in the Junction pub further down Leeman Road (demolished).

I’m not sure if anyone’s occupying the Bullnose building since the Arc Light left and moved into its premises on Clarence Street. According to press reports back then it too would be demolished, when the work on York Central got underway.

Since then the Bullnose building has been recognised as having heritage value. Will that protect it from being demolished? Perhaps not, as this area doesn’t have a good track record.

So many other things in the Leeman Road area have been demolished, including the old foundry buildings in the industrial area, the old school building in the residential area, and the Junction pub.

But, thankfully, not the old church hall, pictured above.

Church hall

Reading about that has sparked further thought, more connections. (It’s all connected.) I was completely unaware of the plans to convert it to residential accommodation, but today found an article from June 2008: Community hope for church hall. It made me think of the current debate and discord over Groves Chapel. Both cases involve a church group wanting to keep a building for community use. Clearly the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) group succeeded in their negotiations with the parochial church council of St Barnabas Church, and now own and occupy the building.

The Hope Church haven’t given up their campaign for Groves Chapel. The difference there is that Groves Chapel has been in the ownership of the NHS Trust, which has different priorities. Mainly a duty to get as much money as possible from the sale of any assets. And whereas the St Barnabas Church Hall was well-used by the local community, it has been decades since Groves Chapel was used by anyone other than the NHS.

Roads and what we call them

The ‘character statement’ (area 33) for this area (recommended read) includes a reference to something else I’ve been thinking about recently, which is the fact that for years I thought of that street with the hall on it, and its continuation up to the traffic lights at Water End/Clifton Bridge, as ‘Leeman Road':

The self-contained nature of this area almost effortlessly creates a sense of identity – the name Leeman Road is used locally to describe the whole residential area, not just one street.

(City of York Historic Characterisation Project – 2013, Character area statements, Area 33: Leeman Road)

… Salisbury Road, Salisbury Terrace and Kingsland Terrace, to me were ‘Leeman Road’. I suspect it has something to do with the one-way system, and the fact that I knew this area from childhood, going through it as a passenger in the family car, from the Water End junction, through the fairly wide Salisbury Road and then into the much narrower terraced Salisbury Terrace, then turning right towards Leeman Road, going under the railway bridge, then turning a sharp left towards town. It felt like one road. But it isn’t.

Roads often travelled, many years ago, as a child, as a passenger in a car, but only a few times on foot as an adult, in the 21st century.

It’s an interesting area, which I might write about again. For now, this page is long enough.

Just some thoughts prompted by one ten year old photo of a street corner.

More information

Arc Light… and then there were just three? (Press, April 2006)

Arc Light: ‘city centre is best’ (Press, April 2006)

Arc is there to help any of us (Reader’s Letter, Press, March 2006)

The Arc Light is particularly in my mind this week following a press article on the retirement of Jeremy Jones: Marleys and me

The post Thoughts on a street corner, Leeman Rd area, then and now appeared first on York Stories.

The Junction pub, Leeman Rd, 16 April 2006

I’m pleased to have found this photo, one quick snapshot taken on a wander through the Leeman Road area on 16 April 2006, part of a much longer walk on a sunny Easter Sunday, one of my old ‘Wanderings’ pages.

When I heard, a couple of years back, that the Junction pub was to be demolished, I wanted to get up there and get a photo or two, but there were other things going on at the time, more important to me. I didn’t remember then that I already had this image of the place from years back. Just the one, but it will do.

And looking at it again ten years on almost to the day has led me to more thought and more reading/research/discoveries, as has been the case with many of these ‘April daily photos‘.

Looking at the photo itself, it’s obvious that the pub isn’t exactly surrounded by a community of houses, and that it appears a bit stranded, in the middle of the industrial district of Leeman Road. Behind it are a couple of short streets of small terraced houses. Newer residential buildings are a little further along, but otherwise it’s just old industrial land, the edge of what we’re now calling ‘York Central’, where many demolitions have taken place. A place awaiting a new shape. So a pub here would struggle, you could say.

The pub’s advertising sign on the verge draws attention to the function room. I wonder how many people went to a function at the Junction.

I know that many people went to gigs here. I vaguely remember going to one myself, though I can’t remember who it was or when it was. But I’ve been told that sometime in recent years (2010-2012ish) the UK Subs and the Angelic Upstarts played here, the latter at a Punk All-Dayer type of event. Earlier than that, a pub review site mentions gigs here in 2005.

Nostalgia is one thing. Nice to have a bit of reminiscing. But these days, increasingly, it’s less about that for me, more about the reasons things change, the reasons some places survive and others don’t, why some places are sustained and campaigned for, while others just get knocked down. Relevant to York and to everywhere else too.

The documents for the planning application are enlightening/thought-provoking, as is so often the case, but particularly so in this case. My impression was that the closure and demolition of this pub happened surprisingly quickly. And the info I’ve been reading backs that up. My photo is from a whole ten years ago, but the pub closed relatively recently. The report to committee for the planning application (13/03597/FUL) says:

The Junction public house closed in February 2013 and was placed on the market in March 2013 by Barry Crux & Company. No interest arose in taking over the property as a public house and it was sold at auction in September 2013. It can be seen that the property was satisfactorily advertised to allow for it to be taken over and run as its public house. In addition it is considered that alternative community facilities of the same nature are present within easy walking distance either in The Leeman Road area or within the City Centre. It is therefore considered that the loss of the communal facility is acceptable.

— source (PDF)

Incredibly quick turnaround on this one, with a planning application submitted and validated in mid November 2013, recommended for approval, and decided 27 Mar 2014.

So there are now houses on the site where the pub used to be. They’ve been designed to blend in with the existing housing behind. So that’s good, isn’t it.

Except … well, other things could be said, but perhaps too much for what was supposed to be a shortish page of readable length. It’s mainly about the value of land, isn’t it.

If you want to compare then and now, here’s a link to the Google Street View image of the new housing on the site. And it’s one of those with that rather nice shift between older Street View and new, so if you select to move forward from where I’ve placed you with that link you’ll see the pub magically reappearing momentarily, on an older Street View.  (Served up at the time of writing, possibly changed by the time you read this.)

Comments welcome, as always. If you have fond memories of the Junction, comments to make on pub closures in general …

The post Up the Junction, York: Leeman Rd, April 2006 appeared first on York Stories.

Yorkshire Evening Press, 30 Dec 1978: SIEGE OF YORK reports on severe floods

The recent floods have been said to be ‘the worst since 1982′, because of the Foss barrier failure. The severe floods of 1982 followed severe floods of only four years earlier. This old Yorkshire Evening Press I have (discussed on a page a few years back, and pictured above) reports on the floods of December 1978, before any of the defences we’re now familiar with were constructed. The Leeman Road area suffered badly.

The caption reads: ‘Just like a canal … A bird’s eye view of Salisbury Terrace (foreground) and Salisbury Road, leading to the junction with Landing Lane and Water End, York. In the background are the swollen River Ouse and Clifton Ings. Many families are living upstairs in the snow-capped homes, without electricity or gas.’

Looking surprisingly cheery in the circumstances, these men in a boat on the temporary river of Salisbury Road (with Water End junction in the background):

I mentioned on the previous page an interesting study from the early 1990s: Public perception of rivers and flood defence (345/2/T) : flooding and flood defences in York by S M Tapsell, S M Tunstall and M Fordham.

It reminds us, at a time when perhaps we need reminding, of the work that has been done to protect so many homes previously vulnerable to major floods.

Of the Leeman Road area defences it says:

According to the NRA, it was the 1978 flood which initiated this scheme as 225 houses in the area had been flooded. This had been the worst flooding since 1947 when 332 houses had been flooded.

… Some local residents were being flooded every year or two.

The study seemed to confirm something I’d heard before, that soil from the nearby sugarbeet factory was used to construct the original floodbanks, which were completed in 1980. It also includes this interesting snippet of information:

the Local Authority wanted to be able to mow the grass at the top of the banks. This involved flattening the top of the banks (standard floodbanks a crescent shape) which slightly increased the cost of the scheme.

It also reported problems with ‘mole infestations’ in the floodbanks.

Further work was needed after the 1982 flood because of seepage. Other work was scheduled to take place in 1992. The defences in this area seem to have had several modifications and improvements, and more work has taken place very recently, with newly formed floodbanks taking shape in the last couple of years. Available information suggests that residents in this area have had to campaign for a long time for adequate, improved defences, as the original floodbanks weren’t high enough.

The authors of this study into perceptions of the defences mention the belief among some residents ‘that the Leeman Road scheme deflects the current of the Ouse and makes flooding worse in other areas of York.’ This could of course be said of all flood defences, and often is, in a phrase I’ve heard a lot recently: ‘one man’s flood defence is another man’s flood.’ All this floodwater we’re wanting to get out of York goes through a few other places downstream, doesn’t it. Which is why it’s probably better, as many have suggested, to have better management further upstream. Perhaps that will come, one day.

For now, it seems the improved Leeman Road and Water End defences have done their job, been a success. Perhaps anyone who knows differently can add a comment, but they looked to be doing well when I had a wander along there on 27 December. This success — and the success of other 1980s and early 1990s defences — has, understandably, been overshadowed by the failure of the Foss barrier. Which caused the same kind of havoc and misery as the residents of the Leeman Road area used to suffer.

It’s clear, looking at that old yellowing (broadsheet sized) Yorkshire Evening Press of 1978, how many changes there have been, in York and everywhere, since the late 1970s and early 80s. Perhaps best summed up by quoting again from Public perception of rivers and flood defence (345/2/T) : flooding and flood defences in York, reporting on what consultation had taken place on the plans for the Leeman Road defences, back then, as remembered by a Mr Wilson:

… public consultation was carried out through the local working man’s club and the vicar of a local church. He thought that there had probably been a newsletter circulated … Mr Wilson said that he did not remember any objections to the scheme and, in fact, the local milkman had told his wife that he should be given a medal for what the Authority did regarding the flood.

Leeman Road area, flood defences, 27 Dec 2015

Further information

Leeman Road Flood Defence Scheme Worries (2008)

Flood defences given extra £1m to protect hundreds of homes (2013)

York’s leaders praise flood defence project (2014)

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