SIX more city centre retailers including Browns department store and Barnitts have attacked the £60 million scheme to extend York's Coppergate Centre.

They say in a letter to the Evening Press that the Coppergate Riverside proposals, creating an extra 250,000 square feet of retail space, would be unsustainable and significantly dilute viability.

They claim the new shops, on land between Clifford's Tower and Piccadilly, would have good parking, easy access and other advantages, while the rest of the city would be left to "flounder" without such benefits.

"It is unlikely that this development would improve the shopping portfolio in York, but it would shift retail business away from the historic core into Coppergate 11. Three multiples, including the major department store, have already indicated that they would intend to move."

The letter is similar in nature to one sent to the paper last week by Adam Sinclair, boss of Mulberry Hall. He has also signed this letter, along with Banks Music, Barnitts Home & Garden, Browns store, Fosters Jewellers, French Connection and Sarah Coggles.

Developers Land Securities have again denied the retailers' claims. Assistant director Richard Akers told the Evening Press it firmly believed that the new shopping development would attract more people to the city, and that the whole city centre would benefit as a result.

He said there was a clear demand from large retailers for the sort of development being proposed by Land Securities.

The firm's research had established that 75 retailers had requirements for space in York, some of whom would want to come into the city from outside.

Others would want to move across to Coppergate from existing premises which were no longer large enough, making them unable to stock a full range of goods - potentially deterring customers from coming to York at all.