HOPES of bringing a big wheel back to York this year appear to be rapidly diminishing.

Organisers say they are no further forward in lodging a planning application to site the tourist attraction.

A spokesman for Great City Attractions (GCA) said there had been no change since March, when the company insisted it was still committed to reinstating the wheel but was still in discussions about possible locations.

“We are still assessing sites, but have made no decision yet and have no further comment,” said the spokesman.

Nigel Ward, the company’s head of global site development, said last autumn the company was examining several potential locations and hoped to pinpoint one particular site by early this year, allowing it to submit an application to City of York Council.

The wheel was successfully sited at the National Railway Museum for two-and-a-half years, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors and providing a major boost to York’s tourism economy. It was dismantled in November 2008.

GCA and its predecessor, World Tourist Attractions (WTA), have been dogged by problems since they started trying to find a new site.

They originally targeted a site near to the Park Inn Hotel, in North Street, but this was vetoed due to environmental concerns.

Plans to put up a 60-metre high wheel in the St George’s Field car park for a three-month period were also scuppered after the Environment Agency objected because the area regularly floods and North Yorkshire Police said it would distract motorists on the inner ring road, and could lead to accidents.

Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of Visit York, said today that a return of the wheel would be a welcome boost for the city’s visitor economy. “While it was here in York, it attracted thousands of new visitors to York, who all spent money in the city’s shops, restaurants and in other visitor attractions,” she said. “The wheel also added a new dimension to York’s cityscape. We’d be delighted to see it return.”