owners of a city centre store have failed in their attempt to expand their business.

W Boyes and Co Ltd hoped to create a first-floor extension to its Goodramgate business in a bid to offer more retail space.

But City of York Council planners have turned down the proposals, ruling that the changes to the building, in the shadow of York Minster, would risk harming historic listed structures nearby.

The store is one of 36 run by the North Yorkshire-founded Boyes chain, and sells homeware, clothes, toiletries, crafts and DIY goods, with the company having planned to build the block intended to house the additional shop space between two existing extensions at the site.

Architects acting for the chain said this design would prevent views being lost over the nearby rooflines of the city centre and the Minster from neighbouring properties, and that the move would allow Boyes to improve its display areas and storage facilities.

However, giving the reasons for refusal, the council’s assistant director for planning and sustainable development, Mike Slater, said: “The proposed extension, by virtue of its height and proximity to the parapet walls of the adjacent buildings, would dominate and exacerbate the sense of enclosure (to these properties).

“It would cause harm to the setting of these Grade II-listed buildings.”

The chain had also said the extension would allow it to “improve the efficiency of the store”.

It has also submitted an application to the council to make changes to a new corridor link between the shop floor and its staff facilities, for which permission was given earlier this year, which it says will make it easier for cages carrying stock to be moved around.

The company was founded by William Boyes in Scarborough in 1881 and now has a string of outlets across Yorkshire, as well as in the north-east.