THE LARGEST supermarket in York city centre will be torn down and replaced with a bigger new store under plans announced today.

Sainsbury has applied to demloish both its supermarket and Homebase store in Foss Bank.

They would be replaced by a supermarket with 40,000 square feet of shopping space. The current store contains 27,000 square feet.

The proposals also include building four houses and a 12-flat development on the land, with the homes neighbouring St Maurice's Road.

City of York Council's area development control officer, Mick Britton, today confirmed that an application had been received.

He said: "The plans are to demolish the existing site, including Homebase, and replace it with a new building.

"The Homebase store would go and the area would be taken up just by a Sainsbury's supermarket. The building would occupy a different part of the site."

The proposals will not be considered until midsummer at the earliest, he said.

Planners needed to examine an essential study into the effect that the development would have on traffic in the area, which has not yet been made.Sainsbury also has a large store at Monks Cross, while a Homebase store, operated by the same company, is located at Clifton Moor.

The Foss Bank site is next to a proposed £23 million retail park at City of York Council's waste disposal site in Foss Islands Road, which would create 132,500 square feet of floor space.

The new plan is the second Sainsbury application being considered in York.

In January last year plans were announced for a multi-million pound expansion of the Monks Cross store creating 50 jobs.

The company said the planned major refit would help to make the "shopping experience more pleasant".

The application was to build an extra 33,000 square feet on to the store.

The scheme involved a new restaurant, a new entrance and a customer toilet block.

Spokesman Mark Graver said it would give Sainsbury's the chance to offer customers much more space as they went around the store.

There would be wider aisles and extra checkouts, and the fresh food produce area would be expanded - but the store had no plans to start selling clothes.