PROPOSALS to provide disabled access and extra space at York Council for Voluntary Service's headquarters in the city are set to go before planners.

The umbrella group for a range of city help services has applied for planning permission to build a "contemporary" two-storey glazed extension to house a lift at the rear of its Grade II listed offices at 8 and 10 Priory Street, and to make internal alterations.

In a separate application, the organisation is seeking approval for a plan to build a single-storey, pitched roof extension to provide three new meeting rooms at its base in the nearby Priory Street Centre, which is also Grade II listed.

The external work to improve disabled access at 8 and 10 Priory Street would involve demolishing a modern flat-roofed garage to make way for a ramp leading to a single-storey glazed entrance lobby, which would lead to the lift. The internal work would mainly involve widening doorways.

The group's chief executive, Colin Stroud, said the organisation had been looking at how to improve disabled access at 8 and 10 Priory Street for about 15 years, but had been restricted by the building's listed status.

But the situation had now improved in the light of the forthcoming Disability Discrimination Act, which comes into force in 2004 and will make disabled access a legal requirement in many buildings.

Mr Stroud said: "We are hopeful our application is going to get approved. It will be interesting to see what happens after that as we will need to raise as much as the building is worth - hundreds of thousands of pounds - to make the improvements."

He said the group would probably try to apply for Lottery funding to fund the improvements. Both bids, which go before the city centre area planning and transport sub-committee on Thursday, January 9, have been recommended for approval by planning officers.

Jonathan Carr, development control officer, said of the disabled access plans: "The improvement in access will allow for the long-term investment to be made in the building by York CVS."

Updated: 09:35 Monday, December 30, 2002