A neighbour of the threatened York pub, The Frog Hall, fears a proposed drive-through McDonalds could turn his neighbourhood into something resembling 'a seedy corner of Leeds'.

John Britton, who has lived near the Frog Hall, in Layerthorpe, York, for 21 years, is worried the area will be plagued by litter if the pub is demolished and the drive-through plan goes ahead.

He has forwarded his concerns to City of York Council in a letter.

He said: "People are going to be walking to this place as much, I believe, as driving, on their way to and from town and there's going to be a distribution of litter radiating out from the place in various directions.

"I don't think, with the best will in the world, that the staff are going to be able to clean it all up.

"With the distance to the town, we are at a disposal point and already have problems with beer cans being wedged in the hedge and burger boxes being dumped in our garden.

"It's where we live, it's a commercial road and we have grown to expect a certain amount but this is going to exacerbate the problem."

The Frog Hall's owner, Enterprise Inns plc, is in the process of selling it to Sheffield-based developer Dransfield Properties Ltd which has submitted plans to City of York Council to regenerate the former British Gas site next to the Frog Hall.

The old gasworks would form the main area of the 23,500 square food retail area, comprising the McDonalds restaurant and two non-food retail units, with associated parking.

Mr Britton said: "I'm not a patron of the Frog Hall but it's a rustic building in traditional brick and stone with nice York stone flags.

"We've never had any trouble relating to the place and it seems a well run pub. It looks like it belongs there.

"We've always known this was a commercial road and we didn't expect a rural standard of life here but we don't want to see the standard of life we do have eroded away. This would turn it into something like a seedy corner of Leeds.

"We expected things to improve but I don't see this as an improvement at all."

Updated: 09:14 Monday, April 30, 2001