STUDENT housing plans for the Walmgate area have hit a stumbling block after heritage experts objected to new buildings which they say will block views of an historic church.

Developers want to build two new student housing blocks on the Herbert Todd site on Percy Lane, near Walmgate, and have a planning application in with City of York Council.

The two blocks would provide 106 new bedrooms for students, and would let the family-run Herbert Todd business move out to new bigger premises at Monks Cross, but the scheme faces opposition from Historic England.

Heritage experts are unhappy with the scale of the proposals for the corner of Navigation Road and Percy Lane, and say the buildings will block views of the Grade I listed St Margaret’s Church, now the National Centre for Early Music.

In a letter to the planners, Historic England’s inspector for the area Dr Diane Green has asked them to turn down the current proposals, and has asked for the plans to be redrawn with the buildings set back from the pavement and reduced in height. She wrote that although the proposed redevelopment could improve the overall aesthetic value of the location, which is in a conservation area, Historic England is still worried that the specific proposals will harm the setting of the historic church.

They are views the council’s own design and conservation department has echoed, and planning papers now show officials also want to see the designs altered to make sure the new buildings do not block views of the church tower.

Although they support the plan to create a terrace of townhouses along the street fronts, rather than a standard block of flats, the officials have suggested cycle and bin stores are moved out of the ground floor so the buildings can be lowered, and say the design problems in Historic England’s letter should be addressed.

The area’s Guildhall Planning Panel has added its own objections to the project, dubbing it an “overdevelopment.”

The panel has also and raised fears about the flood risks and the rapid growth of student housing in the area.

The panel’s written objection adds: “The student accommodation in this area has changed the nature of the area to predominantly student living.”