DEBENHAMS is to open a new store in York in a move that could bring more than 200 new jobs to the city.

The department store group says it will be leaving its existing Davygate site, fuelling speculation that its new store will form a key element of the proposed £60 million Coppergate Riverside development.

Debenhams has said that it will create 4,000 new jobs over the next four years by opening 11 new stores across the country.

A spokeswoman for the retail group said the new store in York would open in the spring of 2004, but she was unable to say where it would be situated.

She added their stores typically employed about 300 staff. The York development would involve resiting from the existing store in Davygate - which currently employs about 70 people - and they would relocate staff from there.

Richard Akers, the assistant director of Coppergate Riverside developers Land Securities, confirmed it was in talks with the group.

He added: "Debenhams was signed up for the scheme proposed in 1998 which was refused planning permission.

"We are still in talks with Debenhams about Coppergate Riverside, but we have not signed up any letting contracts yet as we wish firstly to deal with planning issues."

The developers added there were a number of department store and large unit requirements for York which could not be satisfied in existing units within the city.

The possible move to Coppergate Riverside, and the relocation from Davygate, came under fire from top local retailer Adam Sinclair.

Mr Sinclair, managing director of Mulberry Hall in Stonegate, who has strongly criticised the Coppergate proposals, said: "It is becoming increasingly clear that this scheme is not going to add anything to York.

"Rather it will serve as a drag on historic York, and displace retailers out of historic York.

"That will be bad news for inward investment into the city, tourism, the retail environment that we offer, and for the preservation of our heritage."

Mr Sinclair also claimed "90 per cent of the residents of the city" wanted an open space around Clifford's Tower and that side of the River Foss. He attacked the presentation on the plans in the former York Story building in Castlegate as "biased", saying any statistics derived from it should not be accepted by City of York Council's planning committee.

The Coppergate Riverside scheme includes a 106,000 square feet store across from Clifford's Tower.

andrew.hitchon@ycp.co.uk