THE former pioneer of York’s council headquarters project says Hungate should still be an option and officers “crumpled” in the face of criticism.

Quentin Macdonald said he totally rejected the idea that City of York Council should move into Yorkshire House, on the corner of Station Road and Rougier Street.

He said the alternative proposal, for West Offices in Station Rise, was “more interesting”, but the council’s initial plan was dumped too soon.

In an email sent to his successor, Coun Richard Moore, and the project boss, Bill Woolley, he wrote: “Please tell me that I am just having a bad dream and that when I wake up I will find the Hungate site still being seriously considered as an option.”

Mr Macdonald was the council’s executive member for corporate services when the authority drew up its relocation plans in 2004/5, and was a strong supporter of the Hungate option.

The council withdrew its planning application for Hungate last July, after English Heritage objected to the plans.

Speaking to The Press, Mr Macdonald said he would have fought harder to resist scrapping the scheme.

“I still think Hungate should be an option,” he said. “Had I been in office, I would have challenged English Heritage significantly, because I think English Heritage can be unhelpful at times.

“I think they have a duty to be helpful and when you look at what was there, I really do not think what we were proposing was that awful.”

Mr Macdonald’s comments echo those of fellow Liberal Democrat Tom Holvey, who sat on the committee investigating what went wrong at Hungate.

Documents showed English Heritage was minded to support the council’s application, two weeks before objecting to it.

Coun Holvey said: “Their change of view clearly had an effect, and it is disappointing that they have failed to explain how and why they came to their decision.”

The council has narrowed its choices for a new base to either Norwich Union’s Yorkshire House building, or West Offices, opposite the old rail headquarters in Station Rise, and on the site of the original York Station.

Mr Macdonald said he was not impressed by the first option, but on the latter he said: “I think it has the potential to be an interesting building and the potential perhaps to be used in that way.”