City of York Council is to approve a permanent Anti-Terrorism Traffic Regulation Order (ATTRO), as asked for by North Yorkshire Police. It’s the latest development, writes Mark Rowe, in the balancing of protective security, commerce, heritage, and the interests of locals in accessing shops.
A permanent ATTRO, so a report to the council’s executive, meeting on September 9 stated, would lie dormant for most of the time, ‘and would only be activated when the threat level meets the required thresholds’. Briefly, an ATTRO is defined as a ‘legal order that allows councils and the police to restrict or close off vehicle and pedestrian access to specific streets and public spaces’, typically – and pressingly for the council executive – the annual Christmas market, which runs for six weeks to December 21, and at peak times brings even larger crowds than the usual tourism. Previously, that market and royal visits (King Charles was in the city in May) and the like have had temporary ATTROs, that the council has to make each time on police advice (although for a council to refuse a police request, based on risk, would be controversial). As the report set out, a permanent order allows for a quickly imposed restriction, whether based on national threat levels, intelligence, or the changing risk profile of an event (such as a political rally). It also offers the prospect of event organisers being able to plan early for such restriction. It won’t mean restrictions made more often; rather, it brings ‘an agreed assessment framework’.
Pedestrianised streets
The order covers the city centre’s ‘foot streets zone’ between the two bridges over the River Ouse and the Minster. Those pedestrianised streets are already covered by permanent Hostile Vehicle Mitigation (HVM) bollards, Matadors by the Yorkshire manufacturer Heald; covered by public space CCTV and with networked intercoms (by Axis Communications) for drivers (cash in transit, delivery vehicles and the like) to dial. Given that the council is the hgihways authority and its CCTV control room manages the bollarded centre’s traffic, once an ATTRO is made, it’s told at once. Beyond the bollarded-in area, the ATTRO also covers Minster Yard around York Minster, which has its own anti-ram bollards. In recent years for New Year’s Eve night the council has installed temporary HVM on nearby Duncombe Place, because crowds gather there to see in the new year. The Minster itself and its gardens are private areas.
Blue Badge holders
Any change to access to such a busy centre is bound to spark views; hence a public consultation in spring 2026. Among interest groups are Blue Badge holders, and businesses, each keen to retain access. Set against that, the official counter-terror advice is to ‘reduce the number of vehicles to an absolute minimum in secure areas where an ATTRO is activated’, given that a terrorist (on reconnaissance or carrying out an attack) could steal a Blue Badge (and such badges giving disabled holders concessions, are suspected to be greatly used fraudulently – that’s another story). As for the question put in the consultation, what about terrorists who carry bombs on foot or pushchairs, the authorities’ response is that they are here mitigating against ‘vehicle-ramming attacks and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices’.
CNI
As a consultation document pointed out, York Minster is designated as a ‘Tier 1’ site, meaning it is on the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) for ‘cultural heritage’. The area around the Minster has previously received three requests from North Yorkshire Police for temporary ATTROs. To state the obvious, York’s historic centre was not built with the 21st century in mind (the walls were there to keep out invading Scots). Regardless of terrorism, the authorities are seeking to preserve the heritage, and promoting a minimum of traffic (hence ‘park and ride’). Countering terrorism in such historic cities, as on the Continent, became more urgent when terrorists took up the ‘vehicle as a weapon’ method, as used to deadly effect on Nice’s promenade and at Christmas markets in Berlin in 2016 (and Magdeburg in 2024). Hence bollardisation of such centres as Winchester and Canterbury, besides larger central business districts such as Sheffield and Bradford, still continuing.
Photo by Mark Rowe: Bollards at the corner of Coppergate and Parliament Street, York; note the cover of the HVM promoting the city’s Purple Flag status for a safe night-life.
