A LEADING retailer has launched a stinging attack on the latest scheme to expand York's Coppergate Centre.

Adam Sinclair claims the £60 million Coppergate Riverside proposals could damage the city centre's existing retail heart.

And he suggests that if York is to get a new department store, it should go instead on the site of the former Co-Op store, Victoria House.

But Land Securities, the company behind the plan to develop land between Clifford's Tower and Piccadilly with shops and restaurants, today hit back, claiming there had been a "very positive" reaction to its proposals from both the public and retailers.

And it insisted that the development would help the city fight the "leakage" of trade to other destinations such as Leeds and Meadowhall.

Mr Sinclair, who expresses his concerns in a letter to tonight's Evening Press, is the chairman of the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce's influential retail committee.

But he stressed that he was giving purely his personal views as managing director of Mulberry Hall, the fine china and crystal store in Stonegate.

He said the committee had not yet discussed the proposals and reached a formal response, although he believed his views would win support.

Mr Sinclair feels the scheme significantly elongates York's linear retail development, stretching from High Petergate to Clifford's Tower, and claims that such developments are rarely economically or geographically sustainable.

"This development is likely to drain viability away from York's existing and distinguished, if not unique heart," he said.

He says that if the proposed new department store was built on the site of the former Victoria House department store at the bottom of Micklegate, it would enhance York's "circular development" and also improve access to the city from the station.

Richard Akers, assistant director with Land Securities, said: "As a company that has owned and managed properties in York since the early 1960s, we have both witnessed and played our part in the dynamics of York's development as a high quality shopping venue.

"Our own research shows that the addition of a new department

store will actively enhance the attraction of the city as a shopping destination, by stopping the leakage of shoppers to places such as Leeds, Meadowhall and the Metro Centre in Gateshead."

He said the company knew, from inquiries received, that there was currently the demand for two new big name department stores in York - one of which would be accommodated in the Coppergate Riverside scheme, should planning permission be gained.

"At the same time, the independent property research company

PMA, shows that there are 75 retailers wanting space in the city.

"Of these, 24 could be located in Coppergate Riverside."