York MP Hugh Bayley has warned having York designated as a World Heritage Site could leave the city frozen in the past.

Peter Addyman, director of York Archaelogical Trust, says York has a good chance of making it onto the list of 350 sites chosen from around the world for their beauty and historic value.

The trust has already written to Heritage Secretary Chris Smith, who is visiting York tomorrow and asked for the city to be put forward to UNESCO, which administers the scheme.

Now he hopes to rally interested groups from across the city to form a working party and fight for the designation.

But while agreeing York is in with a strong chance of achieving heritage status, Mr Bayley has warned that the city council and local businesses need to be closely involved with any bid to ensure it does not turn out to be a poisoned chalice.

"If York applied for World Heritage status it would have an extremely good chance," said Mr Bayley.

"But the campaigners would need to work closely with local businesses and the council because there is a real fear that it could freeze the city centre in time making it difficult to attract new jobs and investment.

"We need to look forward to a great future as well as looking back to a glorious past."

City of York Council leader, Rod Hills, shares Mr Bayley's concerns and said it is important to strike a balance between preserving the city's heritage while still having the freedom to investment, which creates jobs. "There would clearly be advantages and disadvantages," he said. "But if we went down this path we would need to ensure that the benefits outweighed any drawbacks."

The Paris-based World Heritage Site committee has visited the city at the trust's invitation, and said the Minster and the walls alone were not enough to secure special status.

But Mr Addyman believes York has other strengths to build on.

"We had the Romans, then the Anglo Saxons and the Vikings - the basis of the case should be the archaeological completeness, which has been well conserved," said Mr Addyman.

"What is needed is a working party, if not for this year's list but for next year's."

He said he did not think people would be put off moving to York if it became a World Heritage Site because it would gain the reputation of being "stuck in the past".

"If York was named as one of the 350 nicest places in the world, it would not be a bad thing," he said.

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