PLANS to extend York Racecourse to cater for Royal Ascot in 2005 have provoked anger.

York Race Committee has applied for permission to build a temporary five-year extension of the track at the northern end of the Knavesmire Road site to allow the course to stage races over a longer distance.

Planning officers at City of York Council have recommended that the plans should be given the go-ahead, but the proposals have angered one resident who lives beside the racecourse.

Barrie Wild, of Dringthorpe Road, said the scheme would set a worrying precedent.

"It's outrageous," he said. "How long will it be before houses are going to be built on there if this goes through?

"The extension should be built just for the Ascot meeting and nothing else - the racecourse is taking liberties."

But James Brennan, spokesman for York Race Committee, said Knavesmire would not look much different from the way it did during the summer race meetings.

He said: "I'm not sure the course is eating into Knavesmire any more than it has done since 1731. To put people's minds at rest, the course won't look much different."

Councillors will decide on the scheme at a meeting of the planning and transport sub committee on January 8.