THIS former time-keeping building is set to pave the way for the multi-million pound redevelopment of the former Terry's chocolate factory in York.

Developers Grantside have submitted two proposals to City of York Council for the Grade II listed building, situated just to the left of the main entrance gates in Bishopthorpe Road.

One involves a straight conversion of the two-storey building into about 6,000sq ft of office space.

The second also involves converting the building but constructing another storey above as well. The extension, to be made using contemporary materials including a steel frame, glass and non-reflective zinc panels, would create a total of 8,800sq ft of office space.

The applications come six months after Grantside submitted a massive planning application for the whole Terry's site, including offices, a luxury hotel and spa, a nursery, a residential care home and apartments.

Development director Peter Callaghan said today this had not progressed through the planning system as quickly as had been hoped, because some very complex issues had arisen.

Grantside had, therefore, decided to submit a very specific proposal for the time-keeping building in the hope that it could be dealt with by a planning meeting in May or June, allowing a start to be made immediately. He said the offices would provide about 50 jobs.

He said the time-keeping building had at one time been used for chocolate workers to clock in at the beginning of their working day, and clock out again at the end of the day.

He said he hoped the substantial application for the whole site could be determined by the summer, allowing work to start on that before the end of the year.

The Press reported yesterday how residents in Bishopthorpe had signed a petition demanding measures to prevent a massive increase in traffic in the village during and after the redevelopment of the Terry's site.

Mr Callaghan said today he had attended meetings at Bishopthorpe and assured residents that Grantside had total control over construction traffic via contracts, and that it would actively police the vehicle movements on site and insist that the Tadcaster Road route to the site was followed, rather than through Bishopthorpe.