DEVELOPERS are bidding again to build new homes on a patch of greenbelt land between Huntington and Earswick.

Pilcher Homes was last year refused permission to build 109 homes off Avon Drive, Huntington, but nine months later the company is now hoping a smaller scheme will get City of York Council’s backing.

The company wants to build 67 homes - including bungalows and some two-bedroomed houses it says are ideal for first time buyers - on the site, but after the controversy of the earlier scheme the revised proposals have been met by opposition from neighbours.

In a letter to the council’s planning department, Pilcher’s planning agents Signet say they do not think the earlier reasons for turning down the site should stand.

The site should not considered greenbelt as York has not had a formally adopted greenbelt because it has not had a completed local plan, they say. At the same time, they say that York’s mounting housing crisis means the homes are desperately needed, and as their plans do not have an environmental impact, they should be approved.

Nonetheless, many of the previous objections have been made to the redrawn plans.

York Outer MP Julian Sturdy, who objected to the earlier scheme as well, said: “I am hopeful that the council will follow their previous decision to reject development in this area.

“I have submitted my own objection to these plans. The greenbelt status of this land continues to be contested despite it being the reason for refusal on two previous occasions. Many residents are also concerned about the established drainage issues in the area, access to the site, and limiting the viability of the future dualling of the A1237.”

The area’s ward councillors Chris Cullwick, Keith Orrell and Carol Runciman have all set out their objections, along with Huntington Parish Council.

The city councillors say that building on the green belt land will effectively join the communities of Huntington and Earswick, and will put unbearable strain on services like roads, schools and drains - already under pressure with developments in Huntington and at the stadium underway.

The land Pilcher want to build on would be needed if the city’s northern ring road is extended into a dual carriageway, they say.

Planning documents show Pilcher are proposing 30 per cent of the new homes be affordable, and around half of the land - around 1.5 hectares - be public open space.