THE National Railway Museum has now decided how pedestrians and cyclists might best get into York city centre when its proposed new Central Gallery is built across Leeman Road - but isn’t making its decision public as yet.

The museum’s preferred option forms part of a massive outline planning application for the York Central development which is set to be submitted to City of York Council today.

But museum bosses have decided to let local residents know their decision first through the distribution of a letter, before telling the media and general public.

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The NRM went out to consultation recently on a list of alternative options after residents protested at initial plans to send pedestrians and cyclists on a detour, claiming the museum was putting tourists before residents.

The options, which the NRM consulted about at two drop-in exhibitions only recently, included building a tunnel under the museum or a bridge overhead, to be reached either by ramps or lifts, and allowing access through the gallery through the night under the watchful gaze of security staff.

The York Central planning application is for up to 2,500 new homes and up to 112,816 sq metres of commercial development - although they cannot both be delivered fully on a teardrop shaped area of brownfield land behind York Railway Station.

It is thought to be the largest application ever received by City of York Council since it was created in 1996.

A council spokesman said yesterday that it would take up to a fortnight to validate the application, and only then would it appear on the authority’s website for people to look through.

He said there would then be a statutory 21-day public consultation, as happened with all planning applications, and the scheme would then go forward for consideration by the council’s full planning committee.

But the York Central Partnership’s masterplan for the site also includes a new multi-storey car park on land behind the station to compensate for lost station parking in Leeman Road, and a new public square - bigger than Millennium Square in Leeds - between the station and the National Railway Museum where events and performances can be staged.

It has said there will be some traffic free streets where children can play safely, and a ‘great park’, featuring trees, grassy areas and reed beds and bigger than the Museum Gardens, would run through the site.

There would also be traffic free cycle and pedestrian paths through the site, and new hotels, restaurants and pubs.

The commercial hub would mostly up to six storeys high on land near the railway station, which would feature a hotel, restaurants and bars, and apartments, as well as offices. The new apartments would mostly be built to the west of the site nearest to Holgate Road, with a mix of terraced town houses and apartments closest to Leeman Road.