YORK'S top councillor was given a grilling from young York residents over the proposed multi-million pound Central development.

Year Eight Millthorpe School pupils researched the plans for the massive York Central, or "teardrop" development, as part of their work on democracy through citizenship.

They spoke about the site to City of York Council leader Steve Galloway, representatives of the York Railway Institute Club, near the Central site, and environmental campaigners from the Millennium Green and LEAF groups.

Rory Barke, the city council's head of community planning and partnerships, also spoke to the students to highlight the link between the re-development of York Central and the Without Walls group's vision of York's future during the next two decades.

Rail company Jarvis gave the pupils a tour around the site before they visited The Deep, in Hull, to see how another brownfield site had been developed.

Even younger pupils got involved, as the Millthorpe students interviewed eight and nine-year-olds, from Poppleton Road Primary School, about their ideas for York's future.

Sue Houghton, the city council's York Central project officer, said: "The York Central project provides a wide range of opportunities to actively engage young people in the planning process.

"The students today will have a long-term interest in the project and by the time it is completed many will be adults, possibly with children of their own, who may end up living and working in York Central." The blueprint for the revolutionary York Central development are currently being considered by city planning chiefs.

No final design has yet been chosen for the 85-acre site, behind York Station. But proposals include 3,000 new homes, six-storey buildings and a new access bridge into the site, from Queen Street.

State-of-the-art transport links, including a light railway system, have also been suggested.

Updated: 08:36 Tuesday, July 15, 2003