PLANS have been unveiled for 249 new homes on land off Hull Road, as York's house-building boom gathers strength.

York-based housebuilder Persimmon Homes wants to develop seven hectares of agricultural land just across the road from the B&Q store and to the west of Grimston Bar Park&Ride.

It says in its application to City of York Council that 30 per cent of the homes will be 'affordable - subject to viability.'

The development of homes ranging from one to four bedrooms each will be screened from the university's Heslington East campus by newly-planted woodland.

The proposal is just the latest in a series of schemes that are set to deliver more than 2,000 new homes in York, which include 1,100 on the former British Sugar site off Boroughbridge Road, 270 on the nearby former Civil Service Sports Ground, 60 on the former Del Monte site in Skelton, more than 200 at the former grain store at Clifton, 229 at the former Terry's site and 650 at Germany Beck in Fulford.

The latest Persimmon scheme has won a cautious welcome from York council leader Dafydd Williams. He said it would be for the planning committee to determine if it was appropriate or not, but he hoped members would consider the scheme against the background of York's housing needs.

"York has a housing crisis with house prices and rent levels fast rising above the level that the people on the average income in York can afford to pay," he said.

"So we need both more affordable houses but more houses in general to help address the supply and demand problems that are forcing up prices."

York Press:

Cllr Mark Warters, pictured at the site of the planned homes

But Cllr Mark Warters, whose Osbaldwick ward is just across the road from the site, said it was 'very disappointing' to see another approach road into the city being 'urbanised.'

He warned that the scheme would lead to another 500 cars clogging up already heavily congested local roads, and claimed more motorists would end up avoiding Hull Road jams by taking a diversion through Osbaldwick and Tang Hall.

He also asked: "Thirty per cent of the homes will be affordable for whom? Will they be affordable for York people or for people arriving through international inward migration, which according to a recent council report will account for about three-quarters of York’s future population growth?"