FRESH plans to demolish staff houses and build 248 student flats at the University of York look set to win the go-ahead next week.

Planners say the campus scheme will help reduce pressure from students on private housing throughout the city.

The university's proposals involve flattening four small terraces of four storey houses at Bleachfield, Heslington, on the north-western edge of the main campus.

The 21 timber houses, built in the 1970s, once provided accommodation for university staff but are currently derelict and boarded up.

The university wants to build six separate accommodation blocks on the site, three of them four storeys high and the others three storeys high, along with a single storey utility building.

The proposals were turned down by City of York Council's planning committee earlier this year, because the design standards were not high enough.

The scheme has now been re-submitted following changes, and officers are recommending approval when it goes back before the committee next Thursday, saying that they consider the design and appearance to be acceptable.

Development control officer Matthew Parkinson says it is regrettable that the old buildings are being lost, as they do offer a unique character and form not seen elsewhere on the campus.

"However, this has to be weighed against the clearly changed circumstances since these were built in the 1970s.

"The university has expanded significantly, and there is now significant pressure to include as much student accommodation within the campus as possible in order to reduce the pressure on private housing throughout the city."

However, the proposals have continued to meet with opposition from some residents and local organisations.

Objectors claim that there have been only "minor, token elevational changes" to the scheme.

Fishergate Planning Panel claimed the flats would be inappropriate over development of the site.

Heslington Parish Council said a more appropriate design should be considered.

Appalling' plan is backed

PLANNERS look set to approve a large new building for York St John University on the site of a former shoe shop, despite strong criticisms.

The university wants to build the three and four storey building on the corner of Clarence Street and Lord Mayor's Walk.

The revised scheme involves the demolition of buildings associated with the former Wynsors shoe store, says a report to councillors.

The new building, which would provide academic floorspace for the university, would be a "complex" structure which will be "wrapped around" two Grade Two listed buildings in Lord Mayor's Walk, which the university also wants to convert into offices.

Development control officer Rachel Tyas says the scheme would enrich the setting of the local conservation area and recommends approval.

However, York Civic Trust, which raised objections to original plans, is still unhappy with the scheme following changes. The trust claimed that with the original plans, the form, mass, scale and relationship of the proposed new buildings to their surroundings were totally alien to the grain and historic character of York. Guildhall Planning Panel described the scehem as "appalling" and "ugly".