MORE than 1,000 new flats are in the pipeline for York, the Evening Press can reveal today.

That is the total number of flats granted planning permission in little over a year.

Council chiefs have told us that in the 14 months since the Evening Press carried out a major study into the spread of flat developments in August 2003, a total of 1,041 have been given the go-ahead. In the six months prior to the 2003 study, the number of flats being built in York increased by 65 per cent.

The latest landmark building to be earmarked for flat conversion is the Bay Horse pub in Marygate.

The Lord Mayor of York, Coun Janet Looker, in her capacity as ward councillor for Marygate, today criticised the ongoing trend for flats conversion in York, saying: "It seems as if everything that stands still in York will be turned into flats."

"I think we've got to look much more carefully at the way in which we consider planning issues because unless we get a clear plan for an area, it seems to be almost carte blanche for people to do what they like."

Coun Looker said it was a "real shame" that the Bay Horse had to go.

"There is always the potential to improve a facility, but once it has gone, you can't do anything about it," she said.

Darrell Buttery, chairman of York Civic Trust, said: "I am really alarmed at the scale of development in York.

"Things are being done without giving them time to settle.

"My feeling is that we are storing up trouble for ourselves in future by this rush to create apartments.

"If this current fashion for flat conversion all goes wrong, you can hardly pick up the pieces and start again."

But Councillor Ann Reid, executive member for planning and transport, said York's flats developments complied with Government guidelines.

"National Government guidance encourages the use of more brownfield sites.

"And just because flats are currently more popular, that doesn't mean there is necessarily anything wrong with them. Developers are merely responding to demand.

"But there are times when the odds are stacked against us, because we have to prove why permission should not be granted, not why it should."

Burtonwood plc, which owns the Bay Horse, said their own research had convinced them the building would be better served as a residential property, rather than continuing as a pub.

Pub Flats plan sparks anger

PLANS to convert a Grade II listed pub into flats have sparked outrage in York.

The proposals put forward to council planning chiefs by Burtonwood plc would see the Bay Horse pub in Marygate turned into ten apartments, if planning permission is granted.

It is just the latest in a series of landmark buildings in York to be caught up in the trend for flat conversions in the city.

Having bought the pub along with 15 others on July 1, the brewery has decided the building would be better as a residential property, and has submitted plans for seven one-bedroom and three two-bedroom apartments.

Jim Thompson, chairman of the York branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), said the scheme was another blow to York's pub trade.

He said: "The loss of any pub is a tragic loss for the community.

"My real concern is that this is yet another real ale pub being closed down in York."

David Gamston, a member of CAMRA's National Pub Heritage Board, said: "Pubs are being too easily cast aside in York nowadays."

The Bay Horse building is a York landmark.

Occupying a prime riverside location close to Museum Gardens, the pub dates from 1894. It was designed by a well-known York architect, WG Penty, whose most famous York building was Leetham's Mill, in Hungate.

Darrell Buttery, chair of York Civic Trust, said: "Penty really was an architect to be reckoned with. There are still a number of feature buildings by him in York and the Bay Horse is undoubtedly one of those."

Joyce Elliott, who has lived in the Marygate area all her life, criticised the Bay Horse scheme.

"They are just decimating the face of York with all these horrendous new flats and houses.

"I think it's a disgrace," said Mrs Elliott, 78, who owns the Jorvik Hotel in Marygate.

Burtonwood's marketing director, Simon Eyles, said the company believed residential use was more suitable for the Bay Horse than keeping it as a pub.

"We have concluded that the local community may be best served by it being converted to an alternative use," he said.

City of York Council planners and conservation officers will consider the application in January, 2005.

Other landmark buildings to have been converted, or are in the process of being converted into flats in York, include the Ambassador Hotel in The Mount; Burton Croft, in Burton Stone Lane; The Starting Gate pub, in Tadcaster Road; and the Irish National League (INL) Club, in Walmgate.

The Ambassador is being converted into ten flats while Burton Croft, the former home of conservationist JB Morrell, will be demolished to create 22 luxury flats.

The Starting Gate has been demolished to make way for 14 flats and seven houses, while the INL Club has been knocked down and replaced with flats.

Updated: 09:28 Saturday, November 13, 2004