THE city council is facing a legal fight over plans for a state-of-the-art new care home in Fulford, but work has already started on the site.

Two Fulford residents have launched a court fight over the plans for the old Fordlands site, and they have been given the go-ahead by a High Court judge to pursue their case.

Mary Urmston and John Matthews have been given permission to pursue their Judicial Review into City of York’s decision to give Octopus Health planning permission to build a new 64 bed care home on the site of the old council-run home.

According to court documents, the pair have argued that technical details of the planning process were not followed properly - for instance Mr Matthews wasn’t informed of a key meeting or of possible changes to a dropped kerb nera his home - and they have also questioned an assessment of how many care home beds the area needs.

In February, Judge Mark Raeside QC agreed that all five of Mrs Urmston and Mr Matthew’s points are “arguable”, and a full hearing is now scheduled for July.

A council spokesman said the authority contests and is fighting all their points, but Mrs Urmston said they have confidence in their arguments. She said: “We wouldn’t be proceeding with this if we didn’t think we had a strong case, but nobody can prejudge it.”

In the meantime, Octopus Healthcare has resubmitted a planning application for the site.

A document on that application says that this move is to “enable the provision of much needed care home accommodation as soon as possible”, but does not acknowledge or imply any deficiencies with the previous bid.

The company has also been given permission to start early site clearance, with the council saying this too is to prevent delays in delivering the care home, if it wins the legal fight.

City council’s assistant director Tracey Carter said: “The planning permission is still valid and all work done will be at Octopus Healthcare’s risk.

“This license permits Octopus to carry out further surveying and clear the site of trees, neither of which requires planning permission. The company will also be able to move a bat roost to a new site ahead of the next roosting season.

“Before doing this they must have complied with all the pre-start planning conditions required by the planning permission and the work is to be carried out in line with a licence that has already been granted by the Environment Agency.

She added: “The work relating to trees and bats is seasonal and if not done in the next month, will have to wait until the end of the year. Security fencing will be erected and noise monitoring equipment installed.”