The Yorkshire NHS Trust has proposed more than doubling the spaces at a car park to serve the 100 staff that work at the site.

The trust has applied to City of York Council to undertake the work at Fairfields, Shipton Road, Skelton, near York.

If approved, the scheme would include extending the existing car park from 39 to 77 spaces on the 4500m2 site.

Some of the new parking bays would also go alongside a widened and resurfaced access road in addition to a separate new car parking area. There would also be a new footpath, electric vehicle charging bays and new lighting columns.

Measures would be undertaken to reduce drainage discharges and there would be tree-planting as well as tree removals.

An environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) noted the scheme would result in the loss of woodland, grassland, hedgerows scrub and trees. Mitigation and avoidance measures have been proposed, including creating a tree protection zone around adjacent trees, adhering to invasive non-native species biosecurity measures and precautionary measures for nesting birds and amphibians.

Furthermore, as it is not currently possible to install extra habitat creation at the site, buying extra ‘Habitat Units’ through the York-based Environment Bank would help deliver a ‘Habitat Gain’ for the project, the EIA added.