A PLANNING blueprint for the future of Selby has become a “ bureaucratic nightmare”, a senior Selby councillor has claimed.

Selby District Council is having to revise its action plan for development after a Government-appointed inspector raised concerns about house-building targets and whether green belt land would be built on.

The authority hopes the plan, which is expected to go before the inspector for a third time in the autumn, could be adopted before the end of the year, but says the delays are piling pressure on its planning department because of major schemes such as the £300 million Olympia Park development being on the table.

Coun John Mackman, cabinet member, said: “It is an extremely complicated and expensive process and has been a bureaucratic nightmare.

“We want to show the Selby district is open for business, especially in the current economic climate, but it is no good for the district or the country as a whole if there is no house-building and developers do not know whether they can develop.

“In the long-term, I would hope the planning process will be easier for people to understand and use, but in the short-term we have been faced with huge challenges.”

The council has spent £1.5 million over the last five years on its Core Strategy document, laying out plans for development in the district until 2026, but it was suspended last October.