MORE than 120 residents of a leafy estate in York have signed a petition protesting against a plan to build a three-storey block of flats close to their homes.

An application has been made to City of York Council by Duncombe Properties Ltd to demolish Southlands, a two-storey detached house in Huntington Road, to make way for the development of 12 two-bedroomed flats with 14 car parking spaces.

The two-storey property, previously a guest house, has been sold.

The protesters, all of whom live in adjoining Stratford Way, are concerned that the access to the site, at present in Huntington Road, will be closed and a new road and footpath made into Stratford Way.

They say this would cause a traffic danger in what is a fairly narrow thoroughfare, and that there is already a twice-a-day hazard when parents on the school-run use Stratford Way as a picking-up point, effectively blocking half the road.

Jack Childe, whose bungalow adjoins the site, and another resident, Eurig Thomas, a former Sheriff of York and former chairman of Huntington Parish Council, started the petition and added their letters of protest to many others.

Mr Childe said a three-storey building would be totally out of scale with the surrounding area and, in his own particular case, would intrude on his privacy.

He said a new road would emerge only a few yards from his driveway and he already often had difficulty in getting his car out because of parked vehicles.

He said: "My home would be overlooked and the noise from cars coming and going day and night just beyond my garden fence would be intolerable, to say the least."

Mr Thomas said: "This is an absurd application and will result in an extremely dangerous traffic situation."

Agents acting for applicants Duncombe Properties declined to comment on the petition when contacted by the Evening Press.

Updated: 09:28 Saturday, May 08, 2004