PLANS have been submitted for a new pub-style family restaurant on the edge of York which could create up to 70 jobs.

City of York Council is expected to decide within two months whether to approve the proposals for the Cloverleaf restaurant on Monks Cross Drive, which would have space for 270 diners.

The site where the restaurant would be built is within the area’s business park, across the road from Monks Cross Shopping Park, and is currently used as car parking.

Cloverleaf Restaurants Ltd and the Helmsley Group, which have drawn up the plans, say the scheme could provide 65 to 70 roles, of which about two-thirds would be full-time positions.

The consortium has also earmarked the area for a wider project, which could ultimately include a 60-bedroom budget hotel and a nursery.

The firms behind the scheme have said those developments and the restaurant and pub could lead to between 150 and 200 jobs, as well as construction roles.

In a planning statement to the council, the developers’ agents, Turley Associates, said the development would become an “integral part of daily life for Monks Cross Business Park, providing refreshment for its users and also the local community as a family-orientated eatery”.

It said the development would also help to incorporate the business park within the wider Monks Cross area.

The statement added: “The development will represent the first phase in providing facilities for existing and future businesses. Future facilities could include a hotel and crèche and the restaurant has been carefully designed to integrate with these facilities.

“Despite Monks Cross’ well-regarded reputation as a location for office development, current market conditions cannot support speculative office development on the site. If the site remains undeveloped, clearly it will not deliver any jobs.”

The plans include 90 parking spaces and the developers say the restaurant and pub would vary between one and two storeys to create “a more interesting skyline”. They said it would echo similar outlets run by Blackburn-based Cloverleaf in Castleford and at Cramlington, in Northumberland.

Huntington Parish Council has supported the scheme, saying it would “bring much-needed employment to the area.