YORK’S controversial Derwenthorpe scheme has cost the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust charity £5 million – before work on building the model village has even started.

The figure was revealed by the Homes And Community Agency to Mark Warters, a leading campaigner against the 540-home development near Osbaldwick, which is hanging in the balance in the wake of a European Commission investigation.

The agency said the money had been spent on:

• Preparing the scheme and site and securing approvals.

• Designating a specific area for newts, maintaining hedgerows and creating access for water/land drainage testing and soil investigation.

• Obtaining planning permission for an energy centre, reaching an agreement to purchase land to create an access from Fifth Avenue and preparing for the start of a project in Temple Avenue.

Regional director David Curtis said the agency would meet the trust early this year to assess whether the scheme’s first and further phases could be delivered.

He said the Government had provided almost £600,000 in funding for affordable rented and homebuy homes in March 2008, on the assumption of a start that month. But because of delays caused by an investigation by the European Commission, the agency had agreed to a revised schedule.

The Commission has ruled City of York Council failed to carry out a tendering process before allocating the land to the trust, and has threatened to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice unless the council and British Government can give an adequate explanation.

Mr Warters said he believed the housing trust should have invested the £5 million in developing a non-contentious brownfield site, where the homes could have been built now, instead of such a controversial location within the draft green belt.

Trust executive director John Hocking said over the past decade, it had made a significant investment in the Derwenthorpe scheme, which demonstrated its commitment to developing much-needed family housing in attractive surroundings in York.

“If the scheme goes ahead it will result in 540 high-quality, energy efficient homes and will create more than 100 jobs,” he said.