INITIAL plans to demolish a York school and replace it with flats are likely to get the go-ahead at a council meeting this week.

Councillors will be asked to approve the scheme for residential development at the St Barnabas School site in Bright Street.

The school, which will move to a new site in Jubilee Terrace in the next few months, would be bulldozed and replaced by a two-storey development of nine apartments - if councillors agree.

The York Diocesan Board of Education is behind the outline planning application, which will be considered by councillors on City of York Council's planning and transport sub-committee on Thursday.

An officers' report, written by development control officer John Ashton, reveals the new flats would be entered from a central point along the Bright Street frontage.

He confirms that the school building, which is Victorian but not listed, would be demolished if the plan was given the go-ahead. Construction work on the new St Barnabas School site, funded through a Private Finance Initiative, began in January.

In his report, Mr Ashton says the new scheme will not generate the kind of traffic levels seen currently at the school site. But police chiefs say the area suffers from high levels of crime and they are concerned there is no guidance in the planning application to "design out crime".

The council received nine letters objecting to the plans with complaints concerning noise, that the development would be out of place in the area and that the school was an "important and characterful landmark building".

Mr Ashton's report states: "On completion of the nearby replacement school, the existing school will be surplus to the future needs of the catchment area - the new building providing enhanced facilities for the local community".

On the old building he writes: "This is not listed and not considered to be of listable quality.

"The site is predominantly within a residential area and, subject to detailed proposals, the principle of residential development is considered acceptable."

Updated: 10:29 Tuesday, October 18, 2005