A HOUSING trust is set to fork out towards the cost of repairing a York road damaged by lorries accessing a major housing development.

City of York Council is in talks with the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust about it covering the bill for repairs to Osbaldwick Village, which was used by construction traffic during the first phase of the 540-home Derwenthorpe scheme.

News of the discussions comes after it emerged that workers turned up at the end of April to carry out the repairs, with buses diverted on to different routes, only to go away again because the job was bigger than had been realised.

It also comes after the council set aside £43,000 of taxpayers' money in its capital budget for 2014/15 to pay for surface dressing works in the road.

Osbaldwick Independent councillor Mark Warters branded the developments a 'farce,' claiming that the council should long ago have obtained money from the trust so that taxpayers were not at risk of footing the bill.

He claimed the road was badly damaged by lorries during the first phase, which had since been completed, but he believed the authority had struggled to claim money back because a survey wasn’t carried out immediately before the works started.

Andy Binner, head of highways at the council, said that in accordance with the planning consent and highway surveys undertaken in Osbaldwick Village, council officers were in talks with the trust about covering the cost of repairs necessitated by construction activities.

"It is anticipated that their contribution will be agreed shortly," he said.

“These repairs started on April 29 and 30 but were stopped early because more extensive remedial work was identified.

"Work will re-commence when this has been fully planned and will then involve large scale patching of holes, before the micro-asphalt surfacing is applied.”

A council spokeswoman said that money allocated for the repairs in the budget would be ploughed back into the city's road repair fund if funding from the trust was obtained.

A trust spokesman said a survey was carried out in November 2012, which had identified a 'minimal' level of damage caused by construction traffic to the road within and around Osbaldwick village, as a result of its use in phase one. "JRHT will reimburse CYC accordingly," he added.