IT will transform a tatty corner of York, create lots of jobs and offer residents an impressive alternative to out-of-town shopping. The Foss Islands retail park is good news.

Most residents will welcome another supermarket. York city centre offers many shopping experiences, but grocery stores are notable by their rarity.

Together with the other shops and the restaurant, the new-look Foss Islands should attract trade away from out-of-town complexes and help to keep York's retail heart beating. At the same time, the council waste depot will be able to move to a purpose-built site.

For once the plans are unlikely to be challenged by conservation arguments. This is billed as one of the largest developments of its kind in the North. But unlike Coppergate Riverside and others, there is no great visible history at stake.

Even the incinerator chimney, an impressive industrial landmark, is to be saved as the shopping centre's centrepiece.

No development of this size is without its problems, however. And the principal one in this case can be summed up in a single word: traffic.

The Hull Road and Foss Islands Road junction already generates regular tailbacks. City of York Council recognised this by sanctioning a housing development for people without cars in Lawrence Street. Taken together with other nearby regeneration projects in Hungate and Layerthorpe, the increase in traffic will be significant.

A new link road is proposed to service the Foss Islands site. But before building begins, the council must be satisfied that the area is genuinely able to cope with the extra traffic.

If that knotty issue can be untangled, the site's change from skips to shops will be one of the best recycling projects in years.

Updated: 11:25 Thursday, February 12, 2004