A COUNCIL blunder has lost York citizens access to an area of open land.

Planning bosses admitted records were not checked when permission was given to fence off land in Beans Way, Heworth.

Investigations would have shown the owners had been ordered in 1988 to leave the area, next to their home, as "public open land."

But the mistake cannot be reversed as legal documents giving permission to build have already been issued.

Roy Templeman, City of York Council director of environment and development services, said: "This decision was issued in error and I apologise for any impact this may have on local amenity.

"I would like to reverse what has happened, but our legal advice is that there is nothing we can do. That is highly regrettable."

He said a full investigation into how it had happened had been launched.

The land is on the deeds for 5 Beans Way.

But in 1988 Ryedale District Council, which then covered Heworth, ordered the owners to pull down hedges and fences they had put up.

This year, the owners asked if they could build a wall and high fence around the land, closing it off to form a private garden.

Officers failed to find the previous ruling.

Mr Templeman said: "The (Ryedale District Council) notice required the area of land in question to be left in an open state to make its status as "public open space" clear.

"This information is held in the council's archives and, had the officer searched the archives, ... this should have resulted in the owners being advised that planning permission was necessary. Unfortunately, this information was not retrieved, ... and the owners were formally advised that planning permission would not be required."

The blunder has been criticised by local residents.

"It is totally unacceptable, that we have lost this land because the council has made a mistake," said one, who asked not to be named. I am in a state of shock that this has been allowed to happen, and I am certainly not the only person here who is disgusted by it."

Coun Mick Bradley, who represents the area and lived in Beans Way himself until recently, said: "An internal investigation has to take place to find out why this went wrong.

"It can't be allowed to happen again."

Updated: 12:43 Monday, December 03, 2001