Furious residents are bracing themselves for a second fight to keep a hostel out of their neighbourhood.

Concerned people living in the Groves area of York are holding a meeting to discuss a planning application by city landlord Geoff Laverack for a hostel in Eldon Street.

Five years ago, residents responded with outrage at Mr Laverack's application to open a hostel in the street. He later withdrew the application.

Today they are alarmed at a new application - to turn existing bedsits and a warehouse at 74 Eldon Street into a hostel.

Park Grove and Area Residents' Association is holding a meeting on Wednesday at 8.15pm in St Thomas' Church Hall, Lowther Street, to discuss the proposal.

Association chairwoman Gill Branscombe said: "It's like a re-run of what happened before."

She said Mr Laverack, who owns a string of properties in the street and rents them out privately, has been invited to attend the meeting along with local city councillors for the area.

Mrs Branscombe, 39, of White Cross Road, said: "It would be right in the heart of the Groves. We feel it is inappropriate."

She said homeless people needed specialist care which only qualified charities and organisations could provide, like the Peasholme Centre, the city's only night hostel.

Mr Laverack was not available for comment, but his brother Matthew Laverack, the scheme's architect, said there was an urgent need for hostels in the city.

He said: "There is supposed to be a housing crisis. This would be only the second hostel in the city. The council has one at Peasholme but people say they need more."

Commenting on the previous application, he replied: "There's been a lot of water under the bridge, I don't want to say more than that."

And he said he was unaware of any meeting on the issue and had not yet received an invitation.

Councillors will discuss the application at a meeting in the next few weeks.

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