TALKS will soon begin to define exactly what offices are planned on the 26 new acres at Monks Cross business park in Huntington which have just been taken out of Green Belt for employment purposes.

Last week, City of York Council planners gave the green light to the Monks Cross Partnership to massively extend the existing 14-acre business park and create potential for 2,500 jobs.

The outline approval insists that the extended site is used for "premier employment" - jobs operating in a high-tech sector, or linked to research.

Now the applicants, the Monks Cross Partnership, plans to work closely with city planners to flesh out the details of what will eventually be built there.

The Monks Cross Partnership is a collaboration between Yorkshire property and development company, The Helmsley Group and leading developers Hugh Ball and Peter Smith.

Already on the business park it has developed the £13 million building leased by the Norwich Union, created Triune Court and speculatively developed the 53,000 sq ft Alpha scheme of seven offices opened by the Duke of York last November.

The new land is seen as vital for offering bases to expanding hi- tech "spinouts" from York University now that the York Science Park is nearing capacity; and as the destination for new Government offices as it seeks to move civil service centres out of the South East.

It will also offer alternatives to other growing York technology companies seeking to relocate within the city.

Richard Peak, of The Helmsley Group who is spokesman for the partnership, said that York now had a "realistic and deliverable opportunity" for office occupiers who had been waiting for the proposed York Central scheme near York Station to come on stream.

But plans for offices on the extended acres would not be immediate, he warned.

"There's a fair bit of infrastructure work on such as roads, power and services. It will be 18 months before we can really start to push for detailed office schemes on the 26 acres."

The fact that Monks Cross North was the first business park in York to be comprehensively developed and managed by one company meant that the whole area could be strategically designed and planned over the next seven to ten years.

But it will not stop the partnership from continuing to develop the 14 acres alongside the new land.

A planning application will be submitted later this month to create a terrace of six starter units of 1,380 and 1,800 sq ft which will be available for sale or to let.

Updated: 12:33 Monday, August 02, 2004