CHANGES have been made to a scheme for an all-night train washing depot in York, in an effort to appease worried residents.

The company behind the Leeman Road plans has cut the size of the workshop on the site by nearly a third.

This maintenance base has also been shifted to the north-west of the site, further away from concerned homeowners to the north.

The highest part of the depot will now face Leeman Road - which the company says will not block sunlight to protesters' properties.

The changes, made by applicants Siemens, come after a heated three-hour public meeting organised by the company last December. Another meeting has been pencilled in for next month.

Initial plans drew criticism from residents over the capacity of the depot and night- time noise. The centre will operate seven days a week between 8pm and 5am.

A Siemens spokeswoman said she was confident the majority of people would feel their concerns had been addressed by changes.

The size of the maintenance depot had been reduced as much as possible, she said, with overall floor space dropping from 1,421 to 1,118 sq metres.

The company said engines would be covered with "side skirts" under trains to help curb noise. The train wash and workshop buildings will be fitted with acoustic cladding.

The spokeswoman added: "This is not going to create any more noise then they have there at the moment - in fact, it's going to improve things.

"We understand where the residents come from, and, of course, it's a concern, but this is a railway site, and will always be used for railway activities.

"We are going to do a lot of work to protect residents from operational work on the site."

She said if Siemens did not build the depot, another company could come in and effectively "ignore the residents".

But one resident, who stressed she had not yet seen the revised plans, said she believed the train wash building would still be too close to homes.

Elaine Shrewsbury, of St James Court, said: "There are still questions to answer."

Coun Andrew Waller, who attended the public meeting, said he wanted to check night noise regulations. But he said it appeared Siemens had made "fairly substantial" changes.

Siemens plans to build the centre with works, access and car park on railway sidings at the former York Depot Refuelling Facility, off Leeman Road. The depot will handle First Group's existing and new £250 million train fleet, creating up to 40 new jobs.

The public meeting will be held at the National Railway Museum at 7pm on March 2.

Updated: 10:15 Monday, February 21, 2005