PLANS to turn a former coal pithead between York and Selby into a ground-breaking green energy centre have been blasted by local councillors.

The Press revealed yesterday that the complex at the former North Selby mine near Escrick, which is being proposed by Science City York and site owners UK Coal, could create up to 150 jobs.

If planning permission is eventually granted by City of York Council, the former colliery offices and workshops would be transformed to create laboratories for research projects and to generate renewable energy.

But Coun Elizabeth Casling, the Selby district and county councillor for Escrick with Riccall, said the development would lead to extra traffic on an already “phenomenally” busy A19 York-Selby road.

“This isn’t a sustainable location,” she said, claiming it would be better sited on a brownfield site closer to an urban centre such as Selby.

She also claimed the development would completely breach the terms of the original planning permission for the coal mine, which is situated in the York council area, just across the border from Selby district.

She said the permission had stated that the land should revert to agricultural use after the mine closed down, and she would be surprised if City of York Council should grant permission for the energy centre in the face of such a condition.

Coun Brian Percival, who is deputy leader of Selby District Council, said that while the proposal was good news for the area’s jobs market, it went against the authority’s policy of locating commerce and industry in a sustainable location.

A UK Coal spokesman said a full traffic assessment would be conducted, but he could already say there would be less traffic to and from the site than when it operated as a mine. He said times had changed since the 1970s when the planning conditions were imposed on the mine, and the proposed centre would create renewable energy that could not have been envisaged at the time.