A BAT survey has been carried out in York’s Museum Gardens, which should pave the way for a fresh bid to construct a big wheel.

A spokesman for York Museums Trust said the organisation would be getting a bat report at the end of this week, after which directors would have to discuss their options.

A planning application to site a 53-metre observation wheel behind York Art Gallery was withdrawn in February, only hours after a planners’ site visit and less than a day before City of York Council was due to make a decision.

York Museums Trust said then a full bat survey needed to be carried out amid “uncertainties” surrounding their presence in the area, but it could not be undertaken then as the creatures were in hibernation and away from their summer roosts.

It said it intended to submit a new application for the wheel after the survey had been conducted.

The plans attracted a huge amount of criticism in the winter from both local residents and conservationists, worried about loss of privacy in local homes and the damage to the skyline, in particular views of the nearby Minster, but others said the scheme would boost the city’s tourism economy.

Michael Slater, the council’s assistant director of city strategy, recommended planning permission should be granted, even though the wheel would temporarily harm the setting of the Minster and the city-centre conservation area.