A YORK school told it could not use its grounds as a car park to raise funds will try again to persuade the council to agree to the innovative scheme.

St George's Primary School made about £2,000 by opening its grounds for car parking at weekends and through the school holidays. The money was used to help fund a £17,000 project to replace a new roof.

But the council put a stop to it in December of last year and in January a planning committee refused to let it continue.

Now the school has come up with a revised planning application and head teacher, Helen Glendinning, is hoping it will be given the go-ahead.

She said: "Schools in general have fared poorly with their budgets this year. Although it has not hit us as hard as it has some, we are in the same boat, so it would be a great boost."

Council planners threw out the original application, saying it could set a precedent for other schools and would stop people using the nearby Park and Ride scheme.

Helen said many of the drawbacks to the plan had been tackled in the new application.

She said a recent survey by the school had found the car park was used mainly by people living near by. She added: "They felt it could set a precedent, but we feel we are unique. We are in a main thoroughfare and within a sensible walking distance of the city centre."

She also said the car park had brought other benefits besides the revenue made from charges.

She said: "We felt it assisted us to keep out vandals over long periods of time because there were people going in and out."

The school is now waiting for the application to go to the planning committee.

Updated: 10:58 Monday, June 30, 2003