CHARACTERLESS blocks of flats are advancing into York like aliens from the War Of The Worlds, an influential report claimed today.

The York Civic Trust's annual report launched a fierce attack on the loss of the city's Victorian heritage to the developers.

It said the demolition of Victorian buildings had begun before the Second World War, and the process had continued to this day, with their replacement by blocks of flats.

But it focused in particular on Lawrence Street, where it said a "handsome and ornate" Victorian villa, a "centrepiece in a pleasing rhythm of terrace/villa/terrace", had been quickly reduced to a heap of rubble.

"A characterless block of flats has now elbowed its way into the space," it claimed. "Like aliens from the War Of The Worlds, such blocks are advancing along the length of this major approach to the city."

The report also criticised the loss of Burton Croft, a pleasant late 19th century villa, which had been home to one of the city's greatest benefactors, JB Morrell. It said the battle to save the building was lost and the site was now to be covered by flats of a utilitarian design.

It said that even if properties were spared, their gardens were still seen as building plots, as had happened recently at 131 The Mount.

And the suburbs were also especially vulnerable. "Here the loss can be especially damaging, since there are fewer buildings of quality in the first place.

"Ashcroft on Bishopthorpe Road, and Shelley House in Acomb, both recent casualties, offered a character and elegance which is lacking in their successors."

The trust said the city has a Georgian Society, and it would now be almost unthinkable to witness the demolition of a Georgian building, but there was no Victorian Society to actively campaign on behalf of buildings from that era.

Trust chairman Darrell Buttery, pictured right, writing a foreword to the report, said the city needed to preserve and strengthen the aspects of York which made it special. "Progress and change are welcome - and inevitable - but we must ensure that in the process, York's identity is guarded."

Updated: 09:58 Wednesday, September 07, 2005