A YORK couple could put a major £25 million scheme to build three new schools in the city in jeopardy because they want to keep, what they say, is a village green.

Kate and Simon Youngjohns are at the centre of a public inquiry which will decide whether Victoria Park, off Cinder Lane, in the Leeman Road area, is a village green, and therefore protected from development.

If it is, the new St Barnabas School will not be built and two other schools, at St Oswald's, at Fulford, and Hob Moor, at Acomb, which are part of the same scheme, will be in jeopardy.

City of York Council has long been planning to build the three schools through the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme, which uses private money.

Damon Copperthwaite, York Schools PFI manager, said: "We will be disappointed if the application is successful as it would be a severe impediment to the development of the project."

He said if the council was unable to build the replacement school at St Barnabas, it would have to renegotiate the funding for the other two schools, which could take many months. The new school plan for St Barnabas resulted in anger from some residents who said the site was used by walkers, horseriders and children.

Mr and Mrs Youngjohns, whose house overlooks the park, have now applied for the land to be designated a village green, prompting the authority to call for a public inquiry.

At the inquiry, held at the Friends Meeting House in York on Thursday and Friday, inspector Martin Carter heard two days of submissions on whether the land was a village green.

Mrs Youngjohns, who lives in Stephenson Way, said the land had been used as a green for many years. "It serves the community of St Barnabas parish and people have used it for sports and pastimes."

When questioned on the fact that all three schools could be lost if the area was deemed a village green, Mrs Youngjohns said that was the responsibility of the council.

Mr Carter will put a report into the council with a recommendation. The authority will have the final say, but it is unlikely to ignore the inspector's guidelines.

Other residents in the area have signalled their support for the new school. Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing presented a petition at a full council meeting on Thursday on behalf of local residents worried about losing it. They claim registering the proposed site as a village green was a "deliberate plan" to stop St Barnabas being built. Parent Heather Bulmer, from the Leeman Road area, said: "It's really important that Leeman Road gets its new school. St Barnabas is out of date and too small with children having to walk through one class to get to another. There's been a lot of scaremongering about the school being built. This is our last chance."

Updated: 10:16 Saturday, May 01, 2004