PREVIOUSLY unseen information about the proposed sale of the Union Terrace site has been made public.

Emails and documents released by City of York Council under the Freedom of Information Act show York St John University wanted to buy the site by early summer and only wanted to “go public” about its intentions after May’s local elections, despite initially expressing their interest last November.

A briefing note on the issue by the council’s head of city development, David Caulfield, dated February 3, which has been confidential until now, said the university’s expansion plans “could bring many benefits – economic, social, cultural, civic”, adding: “We should seek to make it happen.”

But it also said a solution to the loss of the coach park would have to be found to protect York’s tourism economy and any lost car park income was “unlikely to be replaced”.

The document said the site’s value as a car park was more than £2.5 million and “it will be worth more with an alternative use”.

It raised the possibility of retaining the car park with university buildings being constructed over it, but also admitted local businesses would be affected and increased student numbers would not compensate for this.

In an email to the university’s director of facilities, Colin Parkin, on March 24, Mr Caulfield said director of city strategy Bill Woolley’s view was that the council was “very supportive of the aspiration for York St John University to expand on to the Union Terrace car park area” and the authority wanted “to work with the university to meet challenging timescales”.