ZEEBRAZONE

10:29am Saturday 4th December 2010

PLANS for a new unit at a York shopping centre which could create up to 30 new jobs have been approved.

The development at Monks Cross Shopping Park will see a two-storey building fill one of the gaps in its terrace, with the aim of attracting restaurant chains to the site.

It will be built between the centre’s Debenhams and Starbucks stores, and Monks Cross bosses hope it will lead to between 20 and 30 positions for staff being opened up once the scheme, given the go-ahead by City of York Council planners, is completed.

The design of the building could allow space for more than one restaurant to be opened at the out-of-town shopping park, with centre manager Katherine Sharp saying the aim is to provide additional eating facilities for shoppers to go with its existing fast food outlets.

She said: “We’re very pleased with the news and glad to see we have got the council’s planners on our side over these proposals.

“We will now study how we take the scheme forward, but we will look at bringing a restaurant to the unit because that is something we don’t have at the moment, and it will fill a space in the layout of the shopping park.

“We need to increase the offer at Monks Cross and make it even more of a pleasant place for people to come to, as well as helping our tenants who are already here. These plans will hopefully give people an extra reason to shop here.”

Monks Cross’ management team are also still considering the possibility of submitting a fresh application for a multi-million-pound expansion of the site, which would also include restaurants and a new Carphone Warehouse store, following the rejection of the original proposals by planners earlier this year.

The scheme was intended to create 100 full and part-time jobs and boast a pavilion and a piazza for outdoor dining as well as 1,161 square metres of retail space.