Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is not expected to call a public inquiry into the controversial Coppergate Riverside development, York MP Hugh Bayley said today.

He said: "This is a sensitive site and I know the Department of Environment, Trade and the Regions (DETR) will look at the plans, but they probably won't call it in unless they think the council has broken local planning guidelines."

City of York Council's decision to grant Land Securities permission to extend the Coppergate shopping centre on to land between Piccadilly and Clifford's Tower has been passed to Mr Prescott, who has the final say on whether a public inquiry should be held. Hundreds of York residents are understood to have written to the Deputy Prime Minister to ask for an inquiry.

Mr Bayley said: "The idea of open space is attractive, but we have to maintain the economic viability of city centre shops, which face stiff competition from out-of-town developments.

"This is vital. Jobs, tourism and a lot of small York family businesses depend on it.

"The planning application which the council has approved is supported by national conservation specialists from English Heritage."

The Coppergate II scheme received support from the council's planning committee despite huge public opposition, with an alternative proposal to turn the land around Clifford's Tower into a public park refused permission.

The Land Securities proposal would transform the land into 250,000 square feet of retail space, restaurants, offices, flats, leisure facilities and a multi-storey car park.

Philip Crowe, spokesman for the York Tomorrow campaigning group, claimed the MP was misinformed.

"Hugh Bayley cannot possibly know the detail of the arguments both in favour of and against this controversial application and is clearly ignorant of the recent House of Lords ruling on the relevant European Human Rights legislation and the DETR's own guidelines resulting from a parliamentary question in June 1999.

"To attempt to prejudge the issue in this way is an outrageous abuse of his position."

Mr Crowe said that in a letter from Mr Bayley, written in 1998 about a different Coppergate application, the MP said he could not become involved in local planning decisions.

Mr Crowe said: "Can the approach of the General Election, or the fact that the council is balanced on a political knife-edge, have anything to do with this remarkable U-turn?

"All the citizens of York are asking for is a fair hearing, but Mr Bayley evidently does not agree."

Updated: 10:27 Tuesday, January 16, 2001