AN INFLUENTIAL conservation group whose objections helped scupper the original scheme to create York’s new council headquarters has backed revamped plans for the project.

English Heritage’s criticism of the design of City of York Council’s intended HQ in Hungate was a major factor in the scheme being jettisoned in 2008, after the body said it could harm the area’s history.

But it has now come out in support of the decision to transform West Offices in Station Rise, which was York’s first railway station, into the home for the authority’s main customer centre.

It says the plans could set a benchmark for the rest of the UK.

If planning permission is granted for the £43.8 million project, the HQ is due to be completed at the end of 2012, with York Investors LLP, who own the freehold to West Offices, having also submitted proposals for a £10 million, 120-bed hotel next door in Toft Green.

Giving her views on the scheme, Diane Green, historic buildings inspector for English Heritage’s Yorkshire and Humber region, said: “We consider this project has the potential to deliver an outstanding example of office, urban and civic design, enhancing the local environment, and that it could become an exemplar for the re-use of a major historic building.

“This important building is presently under-used and has no clear future. This development offers an opportunity to return it to an integrated and sustainable long-term new use, while improving the public accessibility of the site as York’s former station.

“It also enhances the conservation area, a significant element of which is its railway heritage.”

The Council for British Archaeology has also given its support and said the scheme “should provide a long-term future for the buildings”, although it has raised concerns about how a historic canopy on the site will be dismantled and then re-installed.