A CHIP SHOP owner is fuming over plans to allow hospital staff to use a neighbouring school playground as a temporary car park.

Tony Potts, who runs Tony's Plaice, in Newborough Street, York, collected a 60-name petition against the proposal by York Hospital to use the former Shipton Street School site to enable staff to park.

Cars going in and out of the playground will use an entrance right next to his shop, and he fears their exhaust fumes will be an unpleasant, smelly nuisance to his customers.

"The reason we started the petition is because the entrance and exit is right next door to the shop and there will be 48 cars going in and out," said Mr Potts.

"The road is parked on both sides every day - it's a hospital car park anyway - so they are going to have to wait to pull out into the road. It's not a very healthy thing.

"If there was another entrance on the other side (of the car park) it wouldn't be too bad, but they are trying to kill us off with petrol fumes.

"We only did the petition for a couple of days and we got 60 names. In the morning, the entrance is usually obstructed by cars anyway."

People living near York Hospital have been plagued with parking problems for several years. They have complained in the past about increasing difficulties in parking outside their homes, which are thought to have been caused partly by hospital outpatients, visitors and staff opting to park for free on the streets rather than pay the hospital's car park charges. The problem has been exacerbated by construction work taking up parking spaces in the car park.

Danny Morgan, facilities manager at the hospital, said: "We are still in negotiation with the planning department, so we'll wait and see what they say.

"If we do get permission to use it, it will be only open for use first thing in the morning and at the end of the working day. There won't be traffic coming in and going out. It's necessary because we've got so many construction projects ongoing, we've lost many parking spaces. We're building an integrated breast screening unit and have just completed new theatres, then in July we'll start on the multi-storey car park," he said.

Mr Morgan said he did not know how long the hospital would need to temporarily use the school grounds.

A date for the application to be put before City of York Council planning committee has not yet been set because negotiations are ongoing.

Updated: 08:38 Friday, May 20, 2005