Jon Flatman, chairman of York City Knights, said: “The new Community Stadium will for the first time give York the opportunity to bid for national and international sporting events. “ Working with partners across the city, we’re excited to be exploring bringing elements of the 2021 Rugby League World Cup to the city, which could potentially deliver economic, health and community engagement benefits.”

By December this year plans are afoot to launch a new cultural strategy, steered by the Cultural Leaders Group and overseen by Make It York. Connected to this are plans for a new creative strategy, aimed at developing the conditions in which creative industries can thrive. Mr Brown said: “There seems to be a frenzy of festivals this year but behind all of this there is also a serious amount of strategy work taking place.

“A key priority for our work going forward is to create a truly ambitious vision and plan for the city’s cultural future. Other priorities for the year ahead will be supporting new businesses, raising our game on social media, working with the York BID to attract new retailers to York and producing a talent retention plan for York. Not to mention capitalising on being crowned the Best Place to Live by The Sunday Times, a superb opportunity for the city.”

Jane Lady Gibson, chairwoman of Make It York, said: “Increasingly all the ingredients are in place for York to fashion a positive future. With so many ambitious projects such as York Central, Castle Gateway and York Community Stadium, combined with accolades such as the Sunday Times Best Place to Live 2018, there has never been so many great opportunities for the city.”

This article is courtesy of The Press, please visit their website for more local news.