Plans for flats in a York suburb are recommended for approval, despite fears they are too small, and their residents would worsen parking problems.

City of York’s Planning Committee B will consider the major full application from the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust when it meets next week.

The trust seek to demolish a bungalow on the Sturdee Grove site and erect a two-storey building containing 10 one-bed flats aimed at the elderly.

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If approved, the building would be erected on the site of the warden’s bungalow, plus neighbouring car parking and some of the communal garden area associated with the nearby 21-51 Fossway.

A report prepared for the Wednesday meeting says during the planning process there have been changing to the scheme, including reducing its proposed parking spaces from 15 to 10, improving provision for cyclits/ mobility scooters and shifting the building 2m forward towards Sturdee Grove.

Public consultation led to 14 residents objecting to the original scheme, with them saying the proposal would increase parking pressures. Parking on footpaths would harm people with limited mobility. Additional parking wouldl harm access by emergency vehicles. Parking is needed for residents as well as visitors including health workers and deliver drivers. Development of the car parks would also mean residents will lose their designated car parking space.

Opponents also said the proposal would remove 14 trees, plus hedges, and ‘decimate wildlife.’

Proposed communal facilities, including a laundry, were too small to serve the extra flats. The new ‘unattractive’ flats were too small and ‘poorly laid out’. They represented  ‘overdevelopment’ of the site and would harm the privacy of existing residents nearby.

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Osbaldwick councillor Mark Warters said the development would take-away parking and green space and the trust should focus on finishing its scheme at Derwenthorpe and its ‘poor standards.’ The trust had been unable to ensure the new residents would be over 55, he said.

However, council planners said highways staff are satisfied parking provision is adequate, saying spaces were available when they visited the site. The building would be separated adequately, and landscaping would soften the impact of the scheme. Thus, there would be no unacceptable impact on the amenity of neighbouring residents. Neither would it harm the streetscene and character of the local area.

The planners’ report some communal gardens would be lost by the scheme, the council’s housing department did not object, due to the development meeting certain housing needs.

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It would sit comfortably within its surroundings, not harm parking safety, and was ‘on balance’ considered acceptable subject to a suitable Section 106 agreement to help fund measures including offsite open space and leisure improvements in the locality, their report added.