PLANS to build flats on a York school site that caused uproar among nearby residents have been reversed only months after councillors backed them.

City of York Council accepted the scheme for 24 flats on the former site of the Clifton Preparatory School in The Avenue, Clifton, last October.

Final approval was given to the scheme earlier this year.

But after planning procedures were found not to have been properly followed, the council was advised to perform a U-turn.

The decision went before a High Court judge, who found the procedural problems and gave permission for the review.

The plans went back before City of York Council's Planning Committee last night, where members agreed to rescind them without debate.

The council's head of development control, Cliff Carruthers, said before the meeting: "The reason for the decision relates to a procedural step that the council undertook in dealing with the applications for planning permission."

He said the authority had to consider if the plans should be accompanied by the environmental impact assessment, which would look at their effect on the environment.

Residents had always vowed to fight the decision, even after it was given final approval.

They won the judicial review of the planning decision while the original proposals were still being debated.

Stephen Prophet, who initiated the legal proceedings, said: "Justice seems to have been done.

"We have always been concerned about the legality of these applications. Our objections and concerns remain as strong as ever."

Updated: 08:49 Friday, April 26, 2002