A YORK nursery school could be getting a new home, with a planning decision looking set to go its way.

The Muddy Boots nursery currently based at the old Manor School site on Boroughbridge Road could soon be able to up sticks and move to a specially converted new home, if councillors follow the advice of their planners and approve an application.

The scheme would see farm buildings just half a mile away converted into a new, enlarged, nursery. It has the support of childcare experts in the council, who say that corner of York needs more high quality provision.

A modern barn and stables at The Gardens, close to the A59/ A1237 roundabout, would be extended and converted to give the nursery a new home, which would have room for 90 children, ten more than at the current site.

The extension includes inserting a first floor into the barn, filling in the area between the stables as well as a single storey extension the full length of the south elevation of the barn and attached stables.

Planning documents show that the new buildings would have large new windows and timber folding doors on the front, rear and south elevation and rooflights giving the nursery plenty of natural daylight and connecting it to the outside.

The planning report says: "It is also accepted that the existing premises for Muddy Boots Nursery at the Old Manor School Site is not a long term option. Consultation with the Council's Childcare Sufficiency Group established strong support for the relocation of the nursery and of the shortfall in nursery provision in this part of York should the existing nursery not be able to relocate, and subsequently close.

"The nursery is popular and evidence has been gathered that it provides good quality childcare and should it no longer be operating, there will be a sufficiency gap with other providers in the vicinity being close to capacity."

The plans include widening the access road, and adding a footpath, to make sure that it does not become too congested as parents come and go with their children.

Muddy Boots was forced out of its old Manor School home briefly in February last year, when arsonists lit fires in the building overnight and led to water damage in the nursery's rooms.