CITY of York Council has sometimes been accused of relying too much on one site - York Central - to deliver the new homes the city desperately needs.

There is another site that is arguably even more important if we're ever to build enough homes to meet demand, however: British Sugar.

A planning application to build 1,100 new homes there was submitted in 2014. But since then there has seemed to be almost no progress.

Discussions over how the land should be decontaminated dragged on, and there were fears that it could be years before any building work started.

That prospect has, thankfully, now moved a little closer. British Sugar says that 'positive progress' has been made in discussions with the Environment Agency over how to decontaminate the land, and that significant progress has also been made in negotiations with the city council and other stakeholders.

This may sound rather vague. Nevertheless, British Sugar has pledged to hold another Community Forum meeting at which it will give local people the chance to find out more about the updated plans. That is more encouraging.

Too many big sites in York have been allowed to stagnate for too long. But with progress on the grain stores site at Clifton, the granting of Enterprise Zone status to York Central, and now this new movement on British Sugar, let's hope things are finally beginning to look up.