Letter of objection to the planning application

The Director, Environment and Development Services, City of York Council, 9 St Leonards Place, York, YO1 7ET

28 October 2002

I write as the spokesperson for the above group, whose main objective is to ensure that York City Football Club continues to have a suitable stadium for League Association Football in the City of York.

Friends of Bootham Crescent has viewed the planning application submitted to City of York Council Planning Department concerning the proposed development of 93 dwellings on the current site at York City Football Club, Bootham Crescent, York, by Persimmon Homes (Yorkshire Ltd). The purpose of this letter is to object in the strongest possible terms to the proposal, and to request that the application be declined.

The fundamental principle to be observed is that no change of use should be allowed for the Bootham Crescent site unless and until a superior alternative facility is in place for York City Football Club to play its home games. Such an alternative facility is not available at this time, and is unlikely to be available for some considerable number of years if at all.

The Bootham Crescent site is clearly a leisure facility for the people of York and the region. The application MUST be rejected based on the policies set out in Planning Policy Guidance PPG 17 and Policy L (1) (b) of the First Set of Pre Inquiry Changes to the Draft Local Plan.

In addition, Bootham Crescent is a community facility. The application must also be rejected based on the Policy C3 of the Draft Local Plan

Whilst we are unfamiliar with the general quality of applications submitted to the Planning Office, we are somewhat surprised by the poor quality of Persimmons application. The application is littered with inaccurate and misleading statements and we feel it is very important to bring these to the attention of the Planning Committee so that they are able to make a balanced decision based upon the facts. Please refer to appendix 1 to this letter, which details some of these misleading inaccuracies. We would like to point out i