Fears over council £500,000 plan for luxury flat in park

RESIDENTS FEAR hen and stag groups will stage raucous parties into the night if council plans for a luxury holiday flat in a park gifted to York to honour the city’s First World War heroes goes ahead.

The cost of the planned project for Rowntree Park Lodge, which is said to be £500,000, have also been criticised.

But council officers said the plans will bring in £380,000 for the park during the next 15 years. A resident, Dr Cath Mortimer, speaking at a council meeting, said people had not been kept informed over plans for the flat.

She said: “People felt that it was unclear how the flat would be managed.

What about access? What about parking? How will the gates be kept locked at night? What would stop the flat from being used for hen or stag parties? What would stop the users partying in the park after dark?”

Coun Johnny Hayes added: “The cost is now half-a-million pounds. That’s a very large amount of public money to invest in a luxury let, which only those who can afford £420 a night to actually stay there.”

He said the park was given to the city by the Rowntree family, responsible for the confectionery empire in York, in honour of those who died in the First World War and there are “questions about the appropriateness” of creating a holiday flat on the land.

But council officers said gates will be installed to close the site off and the plans have been updated so the flat now has room for six people rather than four.

The council’s head of commercial management, Nick Collins, said the net income would be ring-fenced for the benefit of the park with up £380,000 generated in the next 15 years. He added there have been extra costs including removing asbestos and fixing the roof, and that tourists would spend money in the park café and bring extra cash into the city’s economy. Senior councillors agreed to put an extra £110,000 towards the plans to convert the top two floors of Rowntree Park Lodge into a holiday flat.

Council leader Ian Gillies, inset, added: “There’s a planning process to go through and nothing was going to be done until September or October. I think during that time we have got time to talk to the relevant people.”

The works were due to take place in January, with the café set to shut until March as part of the refit. But the scheme has been delayed and the café remains open.