YORK Minster hopes its new security barrier can be removed within six months as part of a wider scheme for nearby Duncombe Place.

The cathedral’s Chapter has said in its retrospective planning application for the 12 concrete blocks along the West Front that it is only seeking a six-month temporary permission ‘to allow a wider solution to Duncombe Place to be agreed and implemented.’

The Press asked the Minster to clarify this statement, and confirm whether it was a suggestion that Duncombe Place might be pedestrianised, allowing the barrier to be moved further away from the cathedral to a less aesthetically damaging location.

A spokeswoman responded by saying the Minster was ‘one of several organisations involved in discussions with City of York Council about its future plans for the city centre.’

She said: “The decision to apply for 6 months temporary planning permission gives the flexibility to remove the blocks if the security situation improves or in response to any scheme the council may announce in the future.”

Asked by The Press whether the council had any plans for Duncombe Place, including pedestrianisation, a spokesman said: “The answer is there are no current plans to pedestrianise Duncombe Place.”

“I think the confusion is that the Minster references “any scheme” when there is no such scheme. It rather suggests that something is happening when there isn’t anything planned.”

York Civic Trust chief executive David Fraser said it regretted the installation of the new barrier because it detracted from the historic character of the area.

However, he said it recognised that greater forces were at work which endangered people’s lives and also the fabric of the building and it supported the application.

The blocks are intended to tackle the terror threat from Islamist extremists and have been installed following recommendations from the Counter Terrorism Unit.

The Dean of York, the Very Reverend Dr Vivienne Faull, said recently that the national terror threat level had been at “severe” for many months and was likely to remain so for some time to come, adding that some experts in the UK’s security community believed we are facing a ‘generational problem.’