New food stores should be considered for Acomb and York city centre - but plans to expand ASDA and Sainsbury superstores at Monks Cross should be turned down.

And further out-of-town expansion at Monks Cross retail park and the Fulford designer outlet should also be blocked.

These are some of the key conclusions of a major retail study commissioned by City of York Council, which is likely to strongly influence a series of planning decisions over the next few years.

Members of the planning committee will debate the report next week, with a recommendation by officers that it should be used when determining future retail planning applications.

The study, by national retail experts C B Hillier Parker, will have an immediate bearing later this month when planners decide whether to approve Land Securities' £60 million scheme to extend the Coppergate Centre.

It concludes there will be sufficient shopping spending available in York by 2006 to support the development - "assuming it achieves a marginal and realistic increase in the city centre's market share."

But it says no other major city centre re-development should be permitted at least until Coppergate Riverside has been developed and achieved a mature pattern of trade.

It also suggests that:

* Given the "extremely limited" food store provision in the city centre, a new store - such as a Tesco Metro - could be built within the Coppergate Riverside scheme.

* Sainsbury's proposal to extend its store at Foss Bank should be supported

* There is capacity to support another new food store in the "south" of the city, particularly the Acomb area, and potential sites should be investigated.

Otherwise, the proposed extension of Tesco's store at Askham Bar should be permitted in combination with a discount food store at Acomb.

It says that if such developments went ahead, there would be insufficient shopping spend available to support more than one of the three other applications currently lodged with the council to expand Tesco at Clifton Moor, Sainsbury at Monks Cross and Asda at Monks Cross.

The report says that Tesco's scheme should be given priority out of these three because the existing store is less modern and "overtrading" more.

The report says there is an oversupply in durable goods floor space at both Monks Cross and Fulford, and therefore no more development should be permitted at either site for the foreseeable future.

The study, an update of a previous one in 1997, was commissioned to forecast future capacity for additional retail floor space in the city up to 2011, following substantial growth in out-of-town retailing at Monks Cross and Fulford.