A BLUEPRINT to regenerate a city, enable 1,500 homes to be built and 700 jobs created over 15 years, has been unveiled.

The Ripon City Plan, created by a group of volunteer planning specialists, sets out a series of planning policies, while also providing new facilities for the community and protecting the city’s environmental, cultural and heritage assets.

One of the biggest opportunities presented by the strategy is for local residents to help to shape the regeneration of the Clotherholme and Deverell barracks sites.

The proposals include housing and business workspaces, new roads and the development of community recreational and sporting facilities. In the event of a new swimming pool being built at the Camp Close Leisure Centre, plans for the Spa Quarter will ensure redevelopment of the Spa Baths site will preserve the heritage of the grade II listed building.

Plans for the city centre include new shop premises and amenities that will complement Ripon Cathedral’s redevelopment project announced earlier this year.

A City Plan team spokesman said: “We believe it brings together local aspirations with strategic thinking into proposals that will improve Ripon, as a place to live,work and visit, without compromising its unique character.” For details, visit riponcityplan.com