YoCo Annual General Meeting
One of our Growing Your Co-Owned Neighbourhood Design Workshops held in 2021
We held our first YoCo Annual General Meeting on 26th November 2022. Thank you so much to everyone who came! Here is a brief summary of what we decided and discussed.
Report on activity in 2021 and 2022
We started this period with Covid still shaping what we could do – in 2021 we initiated online events which worked with ideas we think are important and encouraged broad discussion and engagement. We hosted a World Localisation Day screening of The Economics of Happiness, and collaborated with York Cycle Campaign on (what we think was) a UK premiere of the Dutch film Why We Cycle. We ran an online workshop on Community Success Through Exchange with pioneers including the wonderful Homebaked CLT, and an online Q&A with then-York Central Project Director Ian Gray. We were very active on social media and through that, and some robust challenging of national think-tank Demos on Twitter, found ourselves piloting their Combined Choice online participation tool alongside a two-month flurry of unfamiliarly-in-person workshops to turn the My York Central vision and big ideas into YoCo’s Community Plan for York Central. This set out a clear picture of a future York Central, underpinned by radical thinking about how a new economy was needed in order to enable the good things people wanted – children playing in the street, birdsong outside the window, a community made through exchange.
As Ian Gray moved on we maintained contact with the York Central project via Greg Dyke, chair of the strategic board. By spring 2022 it was clear that there were questions about direction, and we were invited, along with other stakeholders, to speak at a board meeting in March. Here Tracey Carter of City of York spelled out that the council’s vision for the site had come from the My York Central public engagement, and we showed how that work had been shaped into a comprehensive plan by the work YoCo had done during the winter. It was fascinating seeing the dynamics of decision-making on a project of this scale, and the constant references back to Kings Cross. That connection was also made in an article in Estates Gazette by our friend in high places Jackie Sadek – stating loudly that the time had come for YoCo’s ideas for a largely traffic-free development.
We have continued to explore the process that the Community Plan set out – how do we grow a mixed use neighbourhood, how do key local issues such as food networks feed into thinking about a hub for learning and creativity, and how can we quickly get “meanwhile use” of buildings to demonstrate the workability of our ideas. We’re currently developing a number of potential projects to present to the York Central Strategic Board early in 2023.
For news about progress and upcoming events on the York Central development, take a look at the York Central Partnership website and its news page here.
Accounts
YoCo had secured funding during they year and this was held temporarily by Edible York and was transferred when we opened our bank account in April 2022. But during the year in question we held no funds– so it was a very quick accounts report – so it was a very quick accounts report. We have £0!
Special Resolution
Until the Annual General Meeting YoCo was using the standard ‘Company Limited by Guarantee Articles of Association’ that are made available by Companies House. We passed a special resolution (which required 75% of members to approve) to change the description of our ‘object’:
YoCo exists to co-create a new local economy based on co-ownership and community wealth building on the York Central site, and more broadly in York and the surrounding areas. YoCo pursues this object through community-led development, in partnership with like-minded associates as appropriate, to co-create vibrant, mixed-use neighbourhoods with forever-affordable homes and sustainable local businesses, in a way that respects the inherent connections between people, planet and economy.
We also adapted the ‘Financial and Accounting arrangements’ to state how we plan to use surplus and what would happen if YoCo closed:
40 (1) Application of surplus. The Company shall not trade for profit. All assets and surpluses must be used to further the object of the Company.
(2) Any surplus will be retained by the Company for the continuation and development of the Company. The distribution of surplus funds to directors or members is prohibited.
41. (1) The Company shall not transfer any of its assets for less than full consideration unless to another not for profit, charitable organisation or common ownership organisation which prohibits the distribution of assets at least to the same extent as imposed on the Company by these articles,
(2) This is referred to as an Asset Locked Body. The Asset Locked Body will be decided by the members at a General Meeting prior to winding up or dissolution. Any alteration to this article requires the approval of 100% of the members.
This arial photograph shows the Foundary Buildings and the wider area YoCo is hoping to develop as the Co-Owned Neighbourhood
What YoCo is doing now
After we’d formally closed the Annual General Meeting we had smaller group discussions about two strands of our current activity:
Growing the co-owned neighbourhood
One of the two groups discussed the proposed mixed-use neighbourhood and the proposals for an economic incubator in the Foundry buildings. We started by setting out the connection between the two. The My York Central eight big ideas had included exploiting the benefits of high density and moving beyond zoning, creating a community made through exchange and public spaces that enable people to be collectively creative. We discussed the design workshops which sketched out early ideas for around 200 units between Leeman Road and the Foundry buildings, and the thinking around “layering” uses to provide active, commercial street level and living above it. We discussed how the Foundry buildings connected with this mix of living, working, learning and play, and how design of public space could connect them. We also discussed YoCo’s community plan and the economic model it proposed – how we needed a new economic framework to give the good stuff this sort of development could bring.
We then discussed the two existing Foundry buildings – the recently-vacated office building (in good condition and ready for use) and the larger workshop building (a huge open space with a problematic roof). We talked about the way in which the office building could become an economic incubator – a seed bed for the businesses which would move out to occupy the lower floors of the adjacent new development. What sort of businesses, and how would they be distinct from those already using the various university incubators? How bold should YoCo be with its ideas – did our portrayal of lively, populated streets go far enough or did “streets” still suggest something we should move beyond? How radical can we be before “frightening the horses”?
We didn’t have time to get as deep into discussion as we could have; YoCo has been very active in researching and making contact with other projects which provide inspiration. We’ve had discussions with People’s Property Portfolio in Bradford and the bold Mayday Saxonvale community-led development proposal in Frome. We’ve explored the mix of uses at Hackney Bridgeand at the Bloqs community makerspace in north London. We’re continuing to discuss ideas with Spark:York and exploring ways of collaborating with them and other creatives in York.
TCV allottment in Hull Road Park - we benefited from their produce as part of our Learning Hub event in summer 2022
Learning Hub, Growing and Wild Spaces
An idea that has been in the mix since the My York Central Big Ideas and Vision is that York Central might host a Hub and outside spaces that ‘catalyse creativity’, enable learning and exchange of ideas and skills. We ran an event in the summer (on one of the hottest days) to develop this idea. At the AGM we chewed over how growing and exchanging produce could become a valued activity, in ways that have economic value and other, more expansive, forms of value. We explored how partnerships might be brokered with York Learning and York Explore.
Final thoughts
A final circuit of the room to share ideas included:
· How meanwhile use might include not only incubator space but tiny houses
· What businesses we could set up as a community that would generate income that we could use to realise the co-owned neighbourhood
· The crucial importance of genuinely affordable housing
· That what YoCo is seeking on York Central is system change – with different economics models that enable York Central to be what York wants and needs
· A sense of the wider and long-term policy and political contexts – of how we could connect into a new emphasis on self-commissioning in Homes England and of how we can be ready for how things might change after the next local and general elections.