ANGRY residents have called on York council chiefs to apologise for "withholding information" about Arc Light's proposed relocation to a former school.

In a packed meeting at Burton Stone Community Centre, more than 60 Clifton residents unanimously agreed to a motion censuring Liberal Democrat councillors.

The motion dominated the second public meeting the joint committee of Clifton Ward residents' associations have held to organise their campaign against the plan to build a 34-bed homeless centre at Shipton Street School.

The Evening Press last week revealed how efforts were made to "gag" Clifton ward councilor Ken King from revealing details about Arc Light's scheme.

He was asked to keep the highly-sensitive information from his constituents by senior council chiefs who wanted to manage how the details came out.

Coun King told the meeting that although he respected the centre's boss, Jeremy Jones, and his plans, his "first concern was to the residents of Clifton".

Residents were shown a letter from York MP Hugh Bayley which said that the council's executive, the committee of senior Liberal Democrat councillors which take executive decisions, had spent 18 months considering seven possible sites for a new Arc Light centre.

Mr Bayley wrote: "To make matters worse, the council says it now needs to make a decision quickly to avoid losing the Government's funding."

Campaigner Dave Nicholson, who chaired the meeting, said Lib Dem councillors had misjudged the public mood.

"They misjudged the mood of the area and their ability to fight it (the plans)," he said. "They made an assumption about us."

The motion demanded that there be open and public consultation with the York community on the Arc Light relocation and that the final decision on the choice of site be deferred until all options had been considered equally.

A meeting of next month's council resources and advisory panel will decide whether Shipton Street School is to be sold to Arc Light.

Residents expressed sympathy for the homeless organisation, saying it did good work and that it had become a "pawn" in a political battle.

Les Marsh, who chairs the Clifton planning panel, said he was "deeply disappointed" that no Liberal Democrat councillors had spoken publicly on the Arc Light scheme.

He said when a planning application for the development was finally submitted to the council, expected to be in the next few weeks, he thought the panel would conclude that Clifton was "too sensitive" for such a centre to be placed in a residential area.

Updated: 09:59 Tuesday, August 23, 2005