YOUNG squatters have taken control of a third disused York building - saying they had no choice after they were made homeless from the White Swan Hotel.

Protesters have moved into a ramshackle terraced home in Holgate Road that has been unoccupied for more than a decade and labelled "unsafe" by neighbours.

The group claim they are the "youth branch" of a larger group of squatters and peace activists who occupied the former Gimcrack Hotel, Fulford Road, York, last week.

Many of them were made homeless after being evicted from the derelict White Swan Hotel in Piccadilly, York, which they renamed the Rainbow Peace Hotel and re-opened it to the community.

Simon Wilkie, 36, says there were six people, aged between 17 and 22, staying in the crumbling three-bedroom property.

He said: "Ideally we would like to make this a proper home. We have cleared overgrown plants and cleaned up rubbish, but it is a listed building and needs specialist structural work. We plan to set up a joint bank account and when the owner contacts us we hope to offer him rent to continue to use the property."

Dizzie, 22, said: "We are not just random squatters. We are people from the hotel who were made homeless by being evicted. This is another building that has been left to rot."

Judy Myers, joint owner of neighbouring business Cameo Engraving, said she had written to the council twice a year for the past six years about the building's insecure condition.

She said she feared loose slates and masonry could fall from the roof. A builder had warned her the chimney stack was unsafe.

"The squatters seem on the face of it to be taking more interest in the property than the owner," she said.

Neighbour Joyce Shilleto said the house had been "left to rack and ruin" since it was last lived in about 15 years ago.

She said: "We were pleasantly surprised when we met the squatters, they seemed nicely spoken and said they were hoping to offer rent."

A spokeswoman for York Police said that they had received no reports of squatters in the Holgate Road building.

Updated: 10:40 Monday, June 02, 2003