YOUNG ballet dancers and Brownies are set for a move so their current home can be turned into flats.

The St Barnabas Church Hall, in York, will make way for a block of three apartments if city planners give the go-ahead for the scheme later this month.

The original plans for the site in Salisbury Terrace were rejected last year because no alternative facilities for the groups which regularly use the hall could be found in the area.

But now a fresh application has been recommended for approval, meaning the Brownies and members of the Yvonne Hoque School of Dancing might have to move to nearby St Barnabas Church.

The Rev Karen Burnett-Hall, vicar of St Barnabas, hopes the decision to sell the church hall site to developers will eventually help create better community facilities in the area.

"We are happy to allow the groups which currently use the hall to use the church instead," she said.

"The money we receive from this development will not be enough in itself to allow us to make the church as user-friendly as we would like, but it gives us the opportunity to seek match-funding from other sources.

"Our long-term goal is to be able to provide facilities both for the church and for members of the community to gather together under one roof, and to do that we have to find the money from somewhere.

"We have tried to do the best we can to keep people informed and put the plans on display in July so the community could look at them.

"I hope people will understand why this is being done - it is a tough decision but it is intended to help us eventually achieve what we want to achieve."

Mrs Burnett-Hall would not confirm how much money is expected to be raised from the sale of the site.

The Yvonne Hoque school - which was unavailable for comment - uses the hall three times a week, with the Brownies meeting there every Wednesday.

St Barnabas Church of England School now houses a playgroup and, when necessary, a polling station previously based at the hall, while a National Childbirth Trust class and a mothers and toddlers group have also switched to the church.