PLANS to create the next stage of a green oasis at the University of York’s massive campus expansion have been given the go-ahead.

The institution has won permission from City of York Council to carry out a huge area of landscaping work aimed at ensuring the £500 million Heslington East project is not swamped by buildings.

Once completed, it will form a “buffer” between two of the clusters of structures on the 117-acre site, which will ultimately see the university virtually double in size.

The landscaped area will include footpaths, new trees, areas for games and picnics and space for studying outdoors, and drainage facilities for Heslington East’s new central lake.

Council’s planning chiefs gave their approval to the “western vista” scheme at a meeting last week.

A spokesman for the university said: “This is one of a series of green wedges which are a feature of the campus extension.

“They provide both a visual connection to open countryside and a green link to the facilities at Heslington East.”

The project will include three landscaped areas, one of which was given planning permission last summer. The third of the “green wedges” will be included in a future application.

Running the rule over the proposals, planning officers said the idea “should provide a good range of habitats, including an important commuting link through the new campus”.

The design for Heslington East has been drawn up to include defined zones which will separate its buildings from the neighbouring Heslington and Badger Hill communities, with the landscaped areas also intended to provide a link to the new lake.

Some of this work is also focusing on one of the site’s most prominent points, Kimberlow Hill, and the stretch of lands which runs alongside the A64.