PLANS for a new hotel and relief road in Layerthorpe have got the go-ahead from city councillors.

Yesterday afternoon the proposals for a new hotel, along with a drive-through restaurant and pub, went before the main planning committee of City of York Council.

Cliff Caruthers from developers O’Neil Associates, told the councillors the hotel project would deliver the missing link in the Heworth Green to James Street link road.

And although planning permission has already been granted for a hotel on the site, the scheme could not go ahead until the existing gas stores are decommissione so the site owners chose to submit a revised application rather than wait for the gas works to be carried out, he added.

Despite concerns from Green councillor Andy D’Agorne that other hotel planning permissions - like one on the Barbican site - have not been used, the majority of councillors voted to approve the plans, subject to a legal agreement which will be drawn up by planning officials.

At the same meeting plans for six holiday lodges and a wildlife pond at Crockey Hill, on the A19 south of York, were rejected. Council staff had warned the committee that they could fall foul of greenbelt development rules.

Speaking for the landowner, Gina Cooper told the councillors the field in the plans would be improved by the scheme, but the majority of committee members voted with the officials’ recommendations and the planning permission was refused.