The man who owns land earmarked for the controversial £60 million Coppergate Centre extension has formally objected to the scheme - and wants to submit his own.

Martin Burgess, managing director of Northminster Properties Ltd, owns slightly more than half the 1.4 acres proposed by developers Land Securities for a new arcade and a Debenhams store on the Piccadilly side of the River Foss.

Today he lashed out at the massive retail scheme spanning both sides of the river as "a potential drain on all the shopping elsewhere in York".

And having objected to the project formally in the town centre development plan, Mr Burgess intends to unveil his own scheme - a mixture of leisure and specialist retail development involving the site of his own Foss-side buildings which once formed part of his former family business, Polar Motors.

The Coppergate phase two scheme has already run into criticism during a public consultation about plans for a massive Debenhams department store, two large stores, 17 smaller shops, 130 new flats, parking for more than 700 cars and a new pedestrian street bridging the Foss.

Architects of the scheme have even agreed to make changes by introducing a clocktower and garden terrace to what some Evening Press readers labelled "a glass palace" while others have objected to the proposed demolition of Cafe Andros in Castlegate to make way for the extension.

Mr Burgess, 52, and his co-director, chartered surveyor Andrew Eccles, believe that by concentrating 25 per cent of the city centre shops at Coppergate, there will be a bad effect on retailers in other parts of York.

They are staying tight-lipped about the details of their scheme which is still being formulated by architects, but reveal that it would be confined to the Piccadilly bank and, as part of a plan to focus on the river, would also consist of a bridge across the Foss to Clifford's Tower.

Mr Burgess says that the Coppergate phase two scheme was first formulated as a way of forestalling out-of-town shopping developments at Monks Cross and at Naburn, but now that the £90 million shopping park at Monks Cross and £60 million designer outlet village at Naburn are nearing completion, "the whole idea has lost its motivation.

"The objective for the citizens of York should be to seek a commercially viable proposal which replaces those redundant old buildings, of no architectural importance, with a scheme that adds to the charm and beauty of the city and at the same time protects the environment of those buildings which are of merit.

Mr Burgess said that he would still be prepared to sell his land to Land Securities but it would need to be a development which followed those principles.

He believed if the scheme went ahead without his agreement to council could use compulsory purchase powers to secure the land.

Surveyor Richard Akers of Land Securities said: "We have been, and continue to be, in negotiation with Martin Burgess about the purchase of his land.''

See COMMENT Planners must heed worries

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.