CONTROVERSIAL plans for a new village at Osbaldwick in York were thrown into turmoil today after a Government Minister declared that the site IS in the Green Belt.

Housing and Planning Minister Nick Raynsford said that if City of York Council resolved to approve an application for 500 homes on the council-owned land at Metcalfe Lane, it would have to be referred to the Secretary of State as a departure from the development plan.

Ryedale MP John Greenway said the Minister's comments were a victory for residents fighting the proposals for a model settlement, which could be at least delayed with the issue of housing reconsidered.

York council has argued until now that the principle of development is established on the site, referring to the conclusions of an inspector at a York Green Belt Inquiry in 1992 that the land should be excluded from the Belt.

But Mr Raynsford said in a letter to Mr Greenway that the Green Belt Plan which would exclude the land from the Belt had not been adopted, and the draft City of York Local Plan was still at inquiry stage.

He said revised planning policy guidance strengthened Government policy in favour of building on previously developed sites before greenfield sites.

"In the event of such an application being referred to my department, full consideration would be given to whether issues of regional or national importance were raised that merited intervention."

Mr Greenway accused the council of jumping the gun, saying: "They cannot seriously expect that they could give themselves planning permission on land which they own unless the suitability of the site is properly re-considered in the green belt review, just like all the other sites which are disputed."

He said he had now asked the council to formally accept that the site should be included in the ongoing Green Belt review, so that the parish council and other interested parties could make representations.

He claimed that, but for his intervention, people would have been none the wiser and the council's view would have prevailed.

Malcolm Kettlestring, chairman of Osbaldwick Parish Council, said today: "I would imagine villagers will be delighted.

"It strengthens our opinion that the land should be included in the Green Belt review."

He said York council had always led the parish to believe the site had been taken out of the Green Belt, and he was very pleased to hear the Government's very different view.

Ian Thomson, York's assistant director planning and design, said this afternoon that the council would need to consider the MP's and the Minister's letters.

"However, it is a fact that a Government inspector who considered the York Green Belt local plan some years ago came to the conclusion that this land did not fulfil a Green Belt function and recommended it be excluded from the Green Belt."

He said the council had always recognised that any planning application which it might wish to approve would have to be referred to the Secretary of State, because of the scale of the development and the council's ownership of a significant part of the site.

Picture: John Greenway