MORE affordable housing should be provided when a rundown area of York is redeveloped, planners have decided.

A blueprint for the revitalisation of the Hungate area has been changed by City of York Council's planning committee to say that 40 per cent of homes should be affordable.

Planning officers had proposed that the figure in the Hungate development brief should be 30 per cent.

The change was made as the size and density of the likely redevelopment came under fresh attack.

The draft brief suggested a capacity of 600 homes, saying this was in response to Government guidance which put great emphasis on the need to increase densities on brownfield sites.

But Peter Brown, of York Civic Trust, claimed 600 homes would be a "gross overdevelopment" of the site, and said Government guidance pressed for local authorities to encourage housing developments making more efficient use of land - with between 30 and 50 dwellings per hectare.

He said that with an office block, leisure, shopping and performance area in Hungate, only two hectares would be available for housing. Therefore 600 homes would equate to 300 per hectare.

"This sort of intensity is not acceptable for Leeds or Sheffield, let alone York," he said, calling for the 600 figure to be removed from the brief. Councillors agreed to change the brief to refer to "approximately 600" dwellings.

Mr Brown also criticised the lack of private amenity space for the people who will live in Hungate, and Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing raised concerns about the provision of junior football and rugby facilities.

The draft brief said large open space sports provision was not appropriate for the site. "Instead, an off-site contribution will be required to address supporting need in the east of the city, ideally within 15 minutes' walking distance of the Hungate site."

Coun Simspon-Laing said she could not think of any site within 15 minutes walk where football pitches could be created, and asked for consideration of the brief to be deferred until officers had identified sites which could be used.

This proposal was thrown out, although the committee agreed to delete the word "ideally" from the reference to "within 15 minutes of the Hungate site".

Green Councillor Mark Hill claimed too much was being crammed into less than ten acres of city-centre land on the Hungate site.

"There is simply not enough room," he said.

"The advert that estate agents should be putting up in London should be 'come to York and live like a sardine'."

Now that the brief has been approved, a revised outline planning application for the site by Hungate (York) Regeneration Ltd, which involves proposals for 720 homes, can now be considered by the committee at a subsequent meeting.

Updated: 09:15 Monday, March 28, 2005