DELAYS in making a start on one of York's biggest redevelopment schemes have come under fire from a community watchdog.

Hungate Community Trust said it had started learning the words of the song Why Are We Waiting?, because of slow progress in revitalising the semi-derelict Hungate site between Stonebow and the River Foss.

Chairman Gordon Campbell-Thomas said an outline planning application, lodged with City of York Council in 2002, had been granted last year, but there had been no real progress with the scheme since March.

He said he had spoken to a council officer in charge of the project, and was told the same thing as he had been told the month before - that it was going to "take another month".

"We are eager to get involved and start work towards delivering community aspirations," said M r Campbell-Thomas.

"However, it is totally unhelpful to be told that progress was at a standstill. Perhaps the councillors should start looking over the shoulders of their officers, and get things moving."

He said the trust, an independent, community-led organization, had been waiting to get involved in the next level of development on the site.

Phil Darcy, of the developers, Hungate (York) Regeneration Ltd, said in January that he hoped archaeologists would start work on the city's biggest dig in decades by the spring, and that construction work on the first phase of the scheme would start by the autumn.

Mr Darcy confirmed today there had been some delay, but stressed: "We are still hopeful that the archaeologists can begin their work by early summer and construction can commence in the autumn. We are keen to proceed as soon as possible with this major regeneration scheme and we hope that the remaining matters to be finalised with the council can be quickly concluded, so that we have the green light to start on site."

A step forward was made last week when the council's executive agreed to sell off several properties in the Hungate area to the developers, to pave the way for the area's redevelopment.

A council spokeswoman said today that its officers were in negotiation with the applicant over details of a legal planning agreement. "This is a major development proposal and these matters do often take some time to finalise," said a spokeswoman.

"When this is finalised, the outline planning permission will be issued. The next stage would be for the applicant to submit a 'reserved matters' planning application setting out the details of the first phase of the development. The timing of such an application is a matter for the applicant."

Updated: 09:17 Tuesday, May 09, 2006