YORK residents are invited to view a multi-million pound project to clean up one of the city's most contaminated sites.

In January, councillors gave Persimmon Homes the green light to build 148 homes and offices on the former gasworks site at Heworth Green.

The York-based house builder has contracted West Yorkshire brownfield redevelopment specialists Encia Remediation to de-contaminate the site, which had high levels of pollutants - including cyanide, phenols, arsenic and cadmium - that were leaking into the River Foss.

Now the public is being invited to the site to view the work being done to clean it up. Plans showing what the development will look like are also on view.

The decontamination project, which began in March, is due to be completed in early summer next year.

Contractors are ring-fencing the site with a steel pile wall, preventing pollutants from seeping into the River Foss.

Old foundations from former buildings, including the gasworks, are being dug up and some recycled for use in the building works.

Adam Matthews, project director for Encia Remediation, said residual coal tars in the ground were being neutralised on site, before being taken to specialist landfill sites in sealed containers.

In the next stage of the project - due to start in August - work will begin to decontaminate deep-level ground water beneath the site.

The hi-tech work will clean up underground soil and clay to protect the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer - a porous level of rock that may provide drinking water for future generations.

The site also has its own weather station - used to monitor wind direction - and specialist equipment to check dust levels and neutralise unpleasant tar smells.

Mr Matthews called on the public to visit the site, adding: "I know the name the site has in this area.

"This work is being done do the current standards - which are very strict.

"We are really going to the nth degree with this one to address the issues of this site."

Persimmon is due to begin building work when the decontamination project is completed. The homes, of which 30 will be affordable, will include underground car parking, landscaping and a children's play area.

The site's information centre will be open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Updated: 08:36 Thursday, May 06, 2004