A YORK architect who has staged a one-man protest over the looming demolition of a former homeless hostel says it should be turned into a stop-over base for visiting school groups.

Matthew Laverack voiced his anger at City of York Council’s plans to bulldoze the Peasholme Centre, in Hungate, to clear the way for businesses or Civil Service jobs to be based there by putting up signs criticising the decision.

They branded the move an attempt to remove “an embarrassing reminder of failure and fiasco” after the centre was closed to make way for the authority’s ultimately abandoned plans for a new Hungate headquarters, with a new building being created in Fishergate.

Now Mr Laverack, a partner in Lord Mayor’s Walk-based The Architect Shop, has written to every councillor in the city and Kersten England, the council’s chief executive, to say the former hostel should survive and outlining his vision for the building.

He said: “After long and hard thought, I have come up with a perfect use for the building – to accommodate visiting parties of schoolchildren overnight.

“The premises are ideal. The council’s proposal to demolish and offer for sale a cleared site is fundamentally flawed because, for all they know, a future potential purchaser may well find the existing building suits his needs and he may wish to incorporate it into any overall scheme for the whole site.

“To bulldoze such an asset without knowing who might want the site would be irresponsible and unforgivable.”

The council has said the demolition of the hostel is necessary to prevent vandalism and stave off the potential for squatters moving in.

Neil Hindhaugh the authority’s head of property services, said: “Decisions have been made within the council to prepare a fully-cleared site, incorporating the existing Haymarket car park, the site of the former ambulance station and the site of the former Peasholme hostel in readiness for development.

“The site has been earmarked, as part of the overall Hungate redevelopment, as an employment site. There has been recent interest from the marketplace in developing this site for a range of employment uses which would provide jobs for people in York and contribute to the effective regeneration of this part of the city centre.”

He also said a completely cleared site would allow interested parties to move their plans through more swiftly.


Have your say

What do you think should be done with the former Peasholme Centre site?