COUNCIL planners have turned down an application for a children's nursery on the Mount in York.

The plan involved converting a bungalow into a Montessori day nursery for about 20 children in St Aubyn's Place.

The decision to refuse the application was taken by councillors at the west and centre area sub committee of the City of York Council.

Officers had recommended the plan should be rejected on the grounds the nursery would cause too much road congestion and noise.

A council spokesman said: "The application for a nursery at St Aubyn's Place on the Mount has been refused.

"Reasons for the refusal include the lack of parking made available which meant that the vehicles would have to park in St Aubyn's Place and would lead to congestion and safety issues.

"The plan was to change the use of the property from residential to a nursery and this was not in line with our planning policy for that location.

"We were concerned that the nursery would cause a lot of noise which would be disruptive to adjacent residents."

The bungalow is owned by the owners of the Elmbank Hotel, in Tadcaster Road, who had proposed providing car parking at the hotel for users of the nursery.

Henry Rodfield, who owns the hotel, said he had been talking to the applicant for the nursery and both were very disappointed the application had been turned down.

He said: "I thought we had addressed the congestion concerns by my offer of several car parking spaces, and we did not think the noise would be an issue because Tadcaster Road is so noisy anyway."

Development control officer Jonathan Kenyon wrote the initial report recommending that the application should be refused.

In the report he stated: "There is a concern from the council's highway network management section and a significant number of residents that the volume of parked cars associated with the proposed use would cause traffic flow problems on St Aubyn's Place.

"In the absence of adequate on-site car parking, the proposed development would be likely to result in vehicles parking on the adjacent public highway thereby in-creasing congestion."

The applicant for the nursery can make an appeal against the decision to the Planning Inspectorate.