PROPOSALS to transform a run-down York council depot into a bustling shopping park - which would include a Morrison's supermarket - have passed the first planning hurdle.

Councillors last night gave outline planning consent to initial plans for a massive 14-acre redevelopment of the York Corporation Depot site in Foss Islands Road.

The multi-million pound scheme will bring supermarket chain Morrison's to the city and will incorporate a petrol station, restaurant, 75,000 sq ft of non-food retail units and substantial car parking.

A new link road connecting James Street, Hallfield Road and Heworth Green will be created to divert traffic away from Foss Islands Road, and there would be extra bus and cycle routes to the city centre.

If given the final go-ahead, the developers, The Gregory Group, says it will be one of the biggest new retail development projects taking place in the North of England and create hundreds of jobs.

Members of City of York Council's planning committee gave plans the go-ahead - but only after insisting that plans for a "green corridor", which would include landscaping, cycle and pedestrian routes, are beefed up by the next stage of the process.

The application was also amended to allow additional mezzanine floors within retail units as a way of reducing the overall groundspace of the site but maintaining the floorspace permitted.

Green councillor Mark Hill voted against the application after calling for the decision to be deferred until revised proposals for the "green corridor" were drawn up.

Coun Hill said: "I want this facility. I think a lot of people in my ward will benefit from it.

"But we asked for a green corridor and they haven't even come back with a green snickle. It's hopeless."

The first phase of the development, which will see the council works depot and household waste site relocated to James Street, could begin as early as 2005, and shop doors could open in mid-2006.

Updated: 09:28 Saturday, April 03, 2004