Smarties make way for live/work in York

The Easter Holiday weekend is set to round off consultation by City of York Council on a proposal to establish a new live/work community and cultural hub on a site where until recently Nestlé Rowntree was churning out Smarties and Polo mints.

Council planners hope the move could help offset the loss of over 600 jobs that went when production ended on the southern, city centre side of Nestlé Rowntree’s Haxby Road site.

The draft planning brief envisions ‘a new inclusive live/work community and cultural hub’ along with ‘high quality urban design and safe and attractive pedestrian/cycle routes through and around the area’, with car use actively discouraged.

Alongside the live/work units, it suggests the 3.16 hectare site could be used for creative and digital industries, manufacturing, artists’ studios and office space for business start-ups, notably those that could boost the local economic board’s ambitious bid to make York a centre for scientific research – ‘Science City York’.

Affordable housing for local families and single people forms part of the brief.

A council spokeswoman told liveworkhomes: ‘The details have not been worked up yet but the council has encouraged Nestlé and its development team to review how live/work units are funded and operated elsewhere in the UK.’

None of the factory buildings, including some dating back to Victorian times, are listed but the planning brief makes clear the need to preserve the site’s character and setting. It notes Haxby Road, which includes Nuffield Hospital and the Rowntree Theatre, is being considered for conservation status.

After the public consultation, council planners will present a revised brief to the planning committee to be approved as supplementary planning guidance for the site. It expects landowner Nestlé and its agents to work up more developed proposals for the site over the next six to nine months.

The manufacture of sweets and chocolates will continue on the northern part of Haxby Road, where Nestlé plans to use proceeds generated by the development to upgrade facilities on the 60% it will retain.

The live/work plans for Haxby Road come hard on the heels of an application to incorporate live/work at another former confectionery site in York.

Seven live/work units form part of extensive proposals by developers Grantside to build a creative technology centre, luxury hotel, community facilities, gallery, museum, park, plaza, restaurants, studios and homes on the former Terry’s chocolate factory site in Bishopthorpe Road.