A CONSERVATION expert at a regional wildlife charity has called for councillors to put the brakes on York's "alarming" rate of expansion.

Robert Masheder, senior conservation officer at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, based in York, has called for more development elsewhere in the region instead of continued growth of the city.

Writing in the charity's magazine Yorkshire Wildlife, Mr Masheder said continued expansion - citing the proposed Germany Beck and Metcalfe Lane developments - was being "fuelled by the aspirations of the city council."

He called for regeneration work to focus on brown field, former industrial sites, across the region rather than further encroachments into green land around York.

He said: "The continued expansion of York is highly questionable from an economic regeneration perspective when seen in the context of the Yorkshire and Humber Region.

"It is to be hoped that the emerging Regional Spatial Strategy will strengthen the argument for regeneration and renewal especially of ecologically-poor brown field sites in more sustainable locations in Yorkshire.

"This would be in preference to green field development in York."

He added: "There seems to be a spiral of development. Job creation creates housing need, then more jobs are needed for the increased population."

Mr Masheder also said that "imbalances" in the planning system meant that local authorities had a "vested interest" in promoting development.

But council leader Steve Galloway said the criticism was unfair, saying that 95 per cent of developments in the city are now on brown field sites.

He said council had since 2003 removed the threat of development of the green belt land from areas near Haxby, Huntington, Rawcliffe and Acomb.

"Since then we have concentrated developments on brown field land," he said.

He said the Germany Beck and Metcalfe Lane developments had both been planned since before City of York Council's formation.

And he said that new brown field sites including Nestlé south, York Central, British Sugar, Hungate, the Barbican Centre and Terry's provided plenty of formerly developed sites to allow the city to expand.

"We are confident that with the availability of new sites we will be able to sustain development that we need for the prosperity of the city on those sites without encroaching into the green belt," he said.