DEMOLITION workers have moved in to flatten a former homeless hostel in York as controversy continues over its destruction.

The old Peasholme Centre, in Peasholme Green, is being knocked down after a replacement complex for homeless people was built in Fishergate.

The move was originally intended to make way for a new City of York Council headquarters at Hungate, but that move was abandoned and the authority now hopes to sell the land to another major employer.

Labour and Green councillors argued earlier this year it was a mistake for the old building to be pulled down when it could be earning money or put to good use by a charity or used to house students. York architect Matthew Laverack also staged a one-man protest over the looming demolition.

Green councillor Dave Taylor today reiterated his party’s objections to the demolition, while Mr Laverack voiced fresh concerns about the way the work was being handled.

Mr Laverack claimed that while the council had a “sustainability” policy requiring any developer clearing a site for redevelopment to try to salvage bricks, stone, tiles and timbers for use elsewhere, the Peasholme Centre was being “smashed to pieces” by a mechanical excavator with no effort made to salvage materials for re-use. He suggested the authority was operating with double standards.

But Neil Hindhaugh, the council’s assistant director of property services, said it required the demolition contractors to undertake work in accordance with a demolition protocol, which emphasised the need to reuse, and then recycle, with landfill as a last resort. He said: “We believe that the contractor is undertaking the work in accordance with this requirement.”

He said the building was being demolished because there was no identified sustainable and viable use for it, adding: “City of York Council executive approved its demolition and clearance of the site for future development. Its development would be for employment use in accordance with the regeneration masterplan for Hungate.”