IT is six years since former grain warehouses at Clifton Moor were bulldozed to make way for new homes. The 19-acre site had stood empty for years before that.

So it is excellent to see movement at last on the Water Lane site.

Redrow Homes is to put in a detailed planning application for 215 homes. The company will also contribute £280,000 towards schools and more than £115,000 to open space.

There will be no 'affordable homes', thanks to a national planning inspector's decision in 2013.

Some will see that as a missed opportunity. But with recent developments at the British Sugar site, Germany Beck, Terrys, Del Monte and the civil service sports ground, it is looking as though housebuilding in York may be turning a corner.