YORK'S community stadium project risked being delayed by a further six months because nobody consulted transport bosses over the huge plans.

The Highways Agency says neither the developer nor City of York Council approached them before the planning application was submitted in December, despite such liaison being the norm.

It has issued a "temporary non-determination" notice, which could force a six-month delay on the project, but a spokeswoman said the Agency was optimistic that enough progress would be made to allow the suspension notice to be lifted.

It has emerged that Simon Jones, asset development manager for the Agency, said last month in a letter to the council that it had "no alternative", given the lack of consultation.

An Agency spokesman told The Press that it encouraged developers to begin early discussions with the Agency's planning teams regarding future planning applications so any issues could be discussed early.

She said: "The Agency was not asked to contribute to discussions prior to the application for Huntington Stadium being submitted on 19 December 2014."

The Agency must legally respond to planning applications on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport, and said that, given the lack of time to do so, it had to request a delay.

But the spokeswoman added: "We have met with the developer and City of York Council on a number of occasions since the application was received by the Agency."

She said the Agency was confident it would be able to drop its formal delay notice, and instead support the application subject to certain conditions being met.

City of York Council did not comment, but Chris Symons, director of development for the developer GLL, said such "non-determination" notices were "standard practice", especially on major planning applications.

He said: "In this instance, the notice has been issued to ensure that they can comprehensively review the Transport Assessment and proposed Travel Plan associated with the development, before submitting a formal representation to the Council. The Highways Agency has not objected to the planning application."

He added: "We are on track and working towards the planning application being determined in the coming months.”