A SCHEME to transform a historic quarter of York has been given a boost after campaigners gave it a "cautious" thumbs-up.

City of York Council has come up with a new development brief for the Castle and Piccadilly area - the third set of proposals for the controversial Coppergate site.

The Castle Area Campaign Group, which fought strongly against the proposals for the Coppergate II development, has now heralded the new brief as "promising".

The £60 million Coppergate II scheme was thrown out by the Government in September 2003, after a long and costly public inquiry.

An inspector recommended the scheme be scrapped for a number of reasons, including its closeness to Clifford's Tower. But the council still wanted to see the site developed and launched a major consultation process to thrash out ideas for the future of the historic area.

Now Castle Area campaigners have chosen today - Yorkshire Day - to officially respond to the new brief.

Spokesman Stuart Wilson said: "We welcome the fact that York Council is now showing much more flexibility.

"This brief is promising as it is a huge improvement on the last, but everyone in York needs to have their say to make sure that this progress is not eroded."

But despite giving the new proposals a "broad welcome", campaigners said they also wanted to see a firmer commitment to open space between the castle and River Foss.

Mr Wilson said: "The brief is worryingly vague on this matter, talking about an 'open carpet' and 'spheres of influence'.

"If the council believes that open space on this site is a good idea, it should just come out and say so.

"'Public open space' should be stipulated in the brief, not labelled on a map as 'mixed use'."

The group have also expressed concern that the new site is too "retail-led".

"The words 'retail-led' appear all over this planning brief, yet I'm sure those words were never mentioned during the public consultation," Mr Wilson said.

"The Castle Area Campaign is concerned that the development will be designed for the benefit of national chain stores and will provide little benefit to York businesses, at a time when demand for large retail units is in decline."

York environmental chief Coun Andrew Waller reassured campaigners that the plans would include open space, and said that larger shops in the development would encourage a greater footfall into York's smaller businesses.

Updated: 10:04 Monday, August 01, 2005