THE abandonment of plans for a 10,000-home ‘garden village’ near Selby could mean the region has missed out on more than 50,000 jobs.

Documents released under the Freedom Of Information Act include a briefing received by Selby and Ainsty MP Nigel Adams, which stated the village would have created:

  • 3,000 affordable homes
  • 16,000 new jobs
  • 37,000 construction jobs
  • bypasses for Church Fenton and Ulleskelf
  • new road links between Sherburn Enterprise Park and the new development
  • new rail and bus services to York and Leeds
  • “new and enhanced railway stations and services” at Church Fenton and Ulleskelf
  • potential new link road between the A1(M) and A64
  • flood protection for Tadcaster and Selby through specially-designed open spaces

The proposals were revealed in The Press at the start of November, but were shelved later that month after a strong local backlash.

Mr Adams told The Press he had been shown “a rough plan”, but the bid had been “dead in the water” due to a failure to communicate with the public.

He said: “The biggest problem with that whole project and I suspect the main reason it was rejected by the Government was there was no consultation with the community.

“The LEP took it upon themselves to make the application for a potential garden village and didn’t speak to the community or local councillors and it’s no great surprise it was rejected.

York Press:

"One of the principal requirements of any bid was to ensure that it had local community engagement and approval and it didn’t. That’s why it was dead in the water.”

In another document released under the FOI Act, Chris Makin, managing director of Makin Enterprises, said the garden village was “a once in a generational opportunity”.

Mr Makin is owner of the former RAF aerodrome at Church Fenton which has been redeveloped and now hosts Yorkshire Studios, office space and workshops, with more than 300 jobs on site, and said the prospect of attracting more people to the region was “exciting”.

He said: “We are proud of the progress we have made in such a short period to start the revival of this important land asset. But our aspiration does not end here.

“We want to secure a long term strategy for our land that puts Selby on the map and creates a desirable new place. Thus we are excited by the opportunity presented by the Government’s prospectus for Garden Villages and keen to participate as the major landowner within the proposal area.”

Mr Adams said he believed that although the garden village plan was gone, there would likely be further development in the area, though perhaps not to the same scale or with the same benefits as one with Government backing.

He said: “You can make all sorts of promises which could potentially never turn into reality and the fact this hasn’t even got to first base makes it irrelevant. The reality is something will end up happening on that site. It’s part brownfield and I have no doubt it will be developed in some way but this particular bid process was flawed from the start because of a failure to engage with the community and local councillors and the MP until the last minute.

“I have no doubt something will happen on that site, but it won’t be a garden village with Government backing, it will have to go through normal planning process if it’s not a Government scheme. Of course there’s a housing need but it needs to be built in a place where there’s a need. Just because you can build thousands of homes in one site, doesn’t mean it’s the right site to build on.”