A MASSIVE housing development that could bring more than a thousand homes to York has finally made progress after more than a year of negotiations, developers say.

The British Sugar site in the north-west of York has been empty since 2008, and despite a full planning application for 1,100 new homes on the land progress has been slow. Now it seems an impasse could be coming to an end, although the city still faces a wait before housebuilding could start.

There were fears that the need for major decontamination of the land could delay work for years.

But Neil Jones, from planning agents Rapleys, says progress has now been made.

He told The Press: "British Sugar is pleased to confirm that significant progress has been made with senior officers and key stakeholders in seeking to ensure the determination of the applications at the earliest opportunity.

He added: "In particular, positive progress has been made with the Environment Agency to ensure the necessary approvals will be in place to allow for appropriate remediation of the site.

"In addition, British Sugar recently met with senior officers and councillors, engaging in positive discussions on the progress of the applications."

York Press:

Major planning applications were submitted to City of York Council late in 2014 and duplicate applications appeared around two months later, but for more than a year little visible progress was made and council planners said only that proposals were in negotiations and decisions should not be expected "for some months".

With major land decontamination expected to be needed for the land, which held a sugar refinery and landfill site, fears emerged that the housebuilding could be put off for years.

York Press: Ian Gillies, leader of the council’s Conservative group.

Cllr Ian Gillies, above, the city council's executive member for planning, said long delays in delivering the 1,100 homes planned for British Sugar could seriously damage York's draft Local Plan - taking a year's worth of house building out of the 15 year plan.

Because of that, Cllr Gillies said he would want to see planning permission granted with a time limit, to make sure building work is not put off for long.

He added: "I am looking forward to seeing what the new proposals are, because we need to crack on with this."

After feedback from the council and the public during a consultation process the applications now need a new Masterplan, but Mr Jones confirmed the plans will not need a new planning application.

He also said the landowners British Sugar are now pledging to hold another Community Forum meeting to give local councillors and residents chance to find out more about the updated plans.

He added: "British Sugar remains fully committed to the sustainable redevelopment of this key brownfield site."