KINGSWAY North residents fear moves are afoot to strip them of their last piece of green land and foist an unpopular housing scheme on the area.

Suspicions were alerted when the council put a notice in the Evening Press on July 22 saying it wished to transfer the grassy, central reservation, which runs the length of the street, from its highways department to its housing department.

Local people were given until August 5 to object to the plan and now they say time is of the essence if they are to nip the scheme in the bud.

A meeting of Bootham Neighbourhood Forum has voted unanimously to oppose the transfer and several people, who have already contacted the Guildhall to try to get more details, say they will also be registering their objections individually.

Joyce Gee, of Kingsway North, told councillors and council officers, there was insufficient room for a new development and said it would make existing tenants feel claustrophobic.

"It's a problem area now and more houses will mean more problems," she told the Evening Press after the meeting. And this is the last bit of green land in the area.

"Not only do we stand to lose that but more houses will mean more cars and worse congestion on Water Lane.

"It seems very strange that after all these years the council should want to change the department - they say there are no definite development plans, so why bother to transfer it at all?"

Kingsway Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator Brian Flanagan agreed and said the idea that the transfer would save the council money on grass cutting was ludicrous.

"On the strategic plan for the city there are 44 units marked down for this piece of land," he said.

"Not 40, not 50 but 44, which suggest to me that research has already been going on and we need to make our voices heard now to stop it."

But the City of York Council's contract manager Tom Brittain has strongly denied plans exist to build on the central reservation."I would like to reassure people that this transfer of land does not mean we have any current proposals to build on the land," said Mr Brittain.

"It's purely an administrative transfer from one committee to another because there are certain financial advantages if the land is held by the housing committee.

"Within the local plan the land has been designated as a site which may be built on at some time, but nothing would be done without a wide consultation with local people.

"The issue came up when the bid for the Single Regeneration funding was being put together and the council is well aware of local people's concerns about any building in this area."

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