PROPOSALS for a business park next to the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet near Fulford raise important questions about how York’s growth is to be managed in future.

On the one hand, Richard France, managing director of the Oakgate Group which is behind the plans, is absolutely right when he points out that the city desperately needs high-quality new office space.

Make It York boss Steve Brown went on record last year as saying the lack of such space was a ‘pressing concern’, with York at risk of losing jobs to other Yorkshire cities where more space was available. The decision this year by two major local employers - Minster Law and CPP - to move jobs out of the city only underlined these concerns.

Oakgate says its proposed business park could attract major inward investment and create employment for up to 2,000 people. Just what the doctor ordered, surely - especially with the development of York Central seeming still to move at a snail’s pace?

Well, perhaps not. The site of the proposed business park is on land that is designated Green Belt under the city’s draft local plan and which is specifically excluded from employment use.

Mr France isn’t very happy about that. Fulford Parish Council, however, believes the city council should stick to its guns, arguing a business park here would damage the city’s Green Belt, add to congestion, and lead to Fulford, Naburn and Bishopthorpe being swallowed up in an expanding York.

There doesn’t seem to be a right answer to this one. But York is the city it is today because it has refused overdevelopment in the past. The local plan will be going out to consultation in September. If you have strong views, that will be the time to air them.