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Pete Kilbane, the deputy leader of City of York Council, admitted that planning permission for 106 apartments on the site on Piccadilly had ‘lapsed’.
But, speaking to The Press, he renewed Labour’s commitment to developing the site - and said every one of the homes ultimately built on the council-owned site would be ‘genuinely affordable’.
“York residents deserve to be able to afford to live in the middle of town,” Cllr Kilbane said.
Planning permission was originally granted for 106 flats at Castle Mills several years ago, as part of a much wider £32m ‘Castle Gateway’ scheme to transform the Eye of York and Piccadilly.
It was intended that income from the sale of the flats at Castle Mills would help to pay for other aspects of the Castle Gateway scheme - including a new public open space at the Eye of York, a foot and cycle bridge across the Foss, and regeneration of the Foss riverside.
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