PLANS to build 24 flats on the site of a former working men's club have been submitted to City of York Council. Committee members at the Layerthorpe club learned last year that owner John Smiths Brewery had sold the site to developers.

The housing plans are expected to be approved at a planning meeting on Tuesday. Mick Britton, the council's development control officer, said: "Following the closure of the club, a petition containing 398 signatures was received against any plans to redevelop the site, on the grounds of the loss of a communal facility."

But he added: "The proposed site ... represents an urban site which is considered to be unused."

Since its closure in October, the club building became a burnt-out wreck after being targeted by vandals and being gutted by two separate fires.

Updated: 15:12 Wednesday, June 26, 2002