RESIDENTS have lost their battle to stop new homes being built on an old school site in Haxby, York.

But the Haxby and Wigginton residents have won a promise that some open space will be kept at the Oaken Grove School site.

It is expected that 27 homes will now be built there, but enough land to provide a football pitch and "floodlit hard surface" will stay.

Speaking at last night's meeting of City of York Council's planning committee, Peter McKenna, spokesman for Haxby Residents' Protest Group, said: "We do not want any more residential development on the Oaken Grove site and we wish to preserve the community field as it is at the moment."

Mr McKenna highlighted residents' anger over what they claim is a lack of consultation on the issue.

"We object to having had no involvement in the process, and Haxby Town Council has recently confirmed there was no final consultation on this."

But Roy Templeman, City of York Council's director of environment and development, told the meeting: "Consultation took place with ward groups, user groups and individual members of the parish council.

"Five thousand leaflets have been made available and boards have been displayed in public.

Mr Templeman said it was not normal for the council to carry out a major public consultation before any planning application has been made. "We believe the procedures have been followed correctly," he said.

Committee chairman Dave Merrett said the proposals followed guidelines for developing brownfield sites.

"The school is a brownfield site, and we are very much encouraged to make better use of brownfield sites by using as many as possible for building.

"The reason for this is to minimise the take of greenfield sites. In that sense the application trying to use the area of the school building is a logical one."

The application was approved, with three amendments. One was to guarantee a hard floodlit area, the second to allow buildings of up to three storeys to be built, the third removed a condition that any community building is available for use before the occupation of half the new dwellings.

After the meeting, Mr McKenna said: "We are pleased that the existing grassed area stays. We would prefer no residential housing development to be on the site at all, particularly houses of three storeys.

"For now, though, it is a matter of going home and discussing what to do next."

Updated: 11:34 Friday, April 26, 2002