PLANS for a new hotel and long awaited link road to relieve inner ring road congestion are set to get the go ahead on Thursday.

The long-running story of the Layerthorpe hotel scheme will reach its latest instalment on Thursday when a recent planning application goes before the City of York council's planning committee.

Tiger Developments abandoned its original plan for a 124-bedroom hotel on the former gasworks site off Layerthorpe, next to the River Foss, following contamination fears, but submitted a fresh proposal for a hotel of the same size on a different part of the site away from the contaminated areas, earlier this year.

Now planning officers are recommending the fresh proposals, which include the completion of the Heworth Green - James Street link road, are given the go-ahead.

A report to the committee says: "The site is derelict and the proposed scheme will deliver both a river walkway along the Foss and the James Street Link Road, two aspirations within the existing Local Plan."

The hotel planned is over five storeys with a pub, restaurant or shop, and also includes plans for a drive-through restaurant.

Six objections have been submitted on the plans, mainly concerned about the noise, nuisance and litter the drive-through could create, and the loss of privacy from the hotel and the riverside walkway; and about the architecture of the hotel and the loss of views between Layerthorpe and the Minster.

But, the planning report says the development would not harm either the amenity, highway safety, or flood risk.

At the same meeting, councillors are expected to refuse plans for six holiday lodges at Crockey Hill Farm on the A19 south of York ring road.

Planning officers have recommended refusal for the application, which they say lies in the greenbelt and the building of holiday lodges and and the infrastructure around them would constitute "unacceptable harm" to the greenbelt.