SCRAPPING a council house-building scheme in the west of York could waste more than £100,000 of public money, local politicians have warned.

The Labour group on City of York Council made the prediction after the newly-elected Conservative housing boss announced a temporary halt on plans for eight new flats on a site in Westfield to give more time for consultation with people nearby.

Between surveys, design work and the planning applications, around £117,000 has already been spent on the project for Newbury Avenue.

A row has now broken out between the Labour councillors who say the pause has only been taken to "placate" the Liberal Democrat ward councillor Andrew Waller, who is a senior figure in the new council administration; and Cllr Waller who says Labour's plans for the site ignored important local concerns.

York Labour’s housing spokesman, Cllr Barbara Boyce said: “Council staff have gone to great lengths, making changes to the scheme following concerns by one opponent who is now supportive of the scheme.

"It is now clear that the Lib Dems are going against public opinion by opposing the scheme. They talk of listening to residents, but override public opinion when it doesn’t suit their party line.”

She added: “A Freedom of Information request shows that well in excess of £100,000 will be wasted if this scheme is scrapped, and still significant public money wasted if it goes ahead on a smaller scale.

"This is a gross waste of public money by the coalition executive, and it seems Lib Dems are well prepared to place local political objectives before the city’s affordable housing need, which is a very worrying development."

Council officials have said that consultation is going on over the Newbury Avenue plans, before a decision is taken on how to proceed.

But Cllr Waller has hit back, saying the Labour group - in control when the building plans were first drawn up - has not "learned the lessons" of their reign at the city council and were ignoring residents.

He added: "As the ward councillor, I called for the plans to be paused after residents living nearby had raised a number of issues. There are existing parking, road and drainage problems in the Newbury Avenue area which local people fear will get worse with extra development. It was completely right therefore to delay and consult further. The results of this consultation will determine how we proceed with the scheme.

"Unlike the previous Labour council we are listening to local people and working with rather than against residents."

A meeting this week was due to hear about plans to deliver more housing in the city, but that report was withdrawn before the agenda papers could be published with the authority's head of housing Tom Brittain only saying the future building plans would be brought up again "later in the year".