Shanty town landlord George Douglas has made yet another attempt to save the flats he created in the garden of a York listed building - more than five months after he was told to pull them down.

Mr Douglas has applied to retain his three flats in the back garden of a house in Heworth Green after shocked councillors ordered their removal.

The latest application follows one in December at which his attempt to save them failed and he was given six months to remove them.

In August last year councillors ordered the construction, which they dubbed a "shanty town", be destroyed after they saw the three flats under plastic roofing.

They had not been given planning permission.

Now Mr Douglas has made another application for the flats, saying he will put a new roof on one of them.

A council spokesman said: "Mr Douglas can keep sending in different applications and he can do it as many times as he likes. The only way we will stop considering it is if we told him there was absolutely no way that it should be there and it is not allowed to be there.

"As far as I know the enforcement order already in place will continue to stand unless the council changes its mind over this retrospective application."

The planning committee will consider Mr Douglas' latest application in March at the earliest.

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