A SEARCH for unexploded munitions at the site of a proposed gipsy and travellers camp cost Selby District Council almost £3,000.

Plans to create the new 15-pitch site at Burn Airfield, which would effectively double the 12-pitch site already there, at an estimated cost of £940,000, have previously been withdrawn by the council, then resubmitted, despite public opposition and the formation of Burn Against New Site (BANS) – a group of local residents, including travellers from the current site, who oppose the plans.

In June, almost 2,000 “magnetic anomalies” were identified at the site, which planning officers believed could have been unexploded munitions from the Second World War.

Records registered in the council’s payments over £500 from last month show the authority paid £2,985 to 1st Line Defence, a company which specialises in locating unexploded ordnance, to carry out a survey at the Burn site.

A spokesman for the council said the payment “relates to survey work at the Burn site, which of course has a distinguished history as an airfield”, and said “nothing found at the site has given any cause for concern or posed a security risk”.

The application, which had already attracted more than 150 comments, objections and messages of support when it was withdrawn by the council in June, was resubmitted, with residents sending letters to carry their comments over to the new plans, meaning that by June the application had cost the council £3,080.

The cost of the survey effectively doubles this amount and parish council chairman Chris Phillipson said the report did not represent the best use of the authority’s money.

He said: “I think it’s doubled the cost and has not been budgeted for, and I don’t know where they are getting the money from.

“I would much rather that the money be spent improving facilities in Selby and I’m sure the residents of Selby would appreciate that as well.”