A SHAKE-UP of fire cover in York looks set to be backed by council chiefs next week.

City of York Council officers have recommended selling the freehold of a site on Kent Street, next to the Barbican centre, to North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service so it can build a £3.8 million base.

It would replace the service’s current Clifford Street home, which the service says is outdated.

One of the two appliances based there and an aerial ladder platform will be switched to Huntington Fire Station. Critics claim this would leave city-centre buildings vulnerable.

Other options before the council’s cabinet are to put the Kent Street site, currently used for car and coach parking, on the open market or postpone its sale to see if property values rise.

A report by John Urwin, a council property manager, said selling the site to the fire service would bring in as much money as it would have fetched before the property crash.