A ROW over the future of the playing fields at a soon-to-be demolished York school has taken a new twist.

A city councillor has blasted the council for not responding more quickly to a petition from residents and young people living close to Manor CE School dating back to November last year. Acomb councillor Tracey Simpson-Laing said the petition requested that the existing Manor CE School playing fields should be kept for community use when teaching moves to the new school site. But she said she was still awaiting a response after three months. She said residents were still unsure of what the future held for both the fields and the buildings.

The Press reported earlier this week that the sale of the old school site may be delayed for up to a year because an access road into the massive York Northwest development could run straight through it. The school in Low Poppleton Lane will close down next month, when a new replacement school opens nearby.

Coun Simpson-Laing is calling on the council to separate the building from the playing fields after the move to the new school building in April and to make the fields an informal open space for residents to use. City of York Council would normally try to sell such sites when they become vacant.

But the authority says that because the land could form part of one of the main access routes into the nearby Northwest site, it will delay disposing of it until the planning process has been completed and the developer appointed.

Officers say this could take 12 months, but the delay could increase the final sale price, especially if the Northwest developer needed the land to unlock the potential of the adjoining site.

Coun Steve Galloway, the Liberal Democrat executive member for city strategy, said if the Northwest scheme went ahead, open space would have to be provided at some location, although not necessarily on the Manor school site.

The Northwest development, which includes the former British Sugar factory as well as the York Central site behind the railway station, is set to include 4,000 homes.

City of York Council said, in all, 34 possible access routes – including vehicular, pedestrian and cycle access – had been identified in the York Northwest area action plan issues and options report.

These routes were still being considered and no conclusions had yet been reached.

But Coun Simpson-Laing said: “Residents want to kick a ball around and have an informal game of cricket. “Recent Government statistics show that 50 per cent of today’s young people will be obese by 2050 and that’s why the Change4Life campaign has been launched. Young people in the area need a place to exercise.”