THE City of York Council election is a “referendum on the green belt”, according to Conservative candidate Julian Sturdy.

The election on Thursday will see all 47 councillors fight for their seats, in 22 wards with newlydrawn boundaries.

Mr Sturdy, who is fighting for re-election as MP for York Outer, claimed the future of the green belt around York was the key issue in the polls.

He said: “If anything, this election has come at the best possible time for York. It will give residents a chance to properly decide on the future of our city through the democratic process.

"These elections are unique not just because we will see both local and general elections on the same day, but that they will truly be a referendum on the Local Plan and the future of our great city.”

Mr Sturdy added: “The failings of the current administration in York could not have been clearer than in the Local Plan process. York’s residents have made their voices heard, despite the council consistently refusing to listen.”

The Local Plan will set out housing and development plans for the next 15 years, but York’s has been delayed by disagreements between political groups.

But the Labour leader of the council, Dafydd Williams, said the city desperately needed new homes, and even the housing numbers agreed by city Conservative candidates would see building on greenfield land.

He added: “If these elections are a referendum on any single issue it is on York’s crippling housing crisis which is seeing people being priced out of their own city.”

With Liberal Democrats vocally opposing plans for as many as 22,000 new homes and voting against the Local Plan proposals, the party’s leader in York said their candidates were committed to protecting the green belt, and to drawing up a “rigorous evidencedbased plan”.

Cllr Keith Aspden said: “When we launched our local manifesto recently, we included as one of our six key priorities to fight for York’s green belt, with a revised Local Plan which focuses much-needed house building on brownfield sites across the city such as York Central.”

But if the council election ends with the authority staying under no overall control, the potential Green councillors claim they could hold the balance of power.

Fishergate Green councillor Andy D’Agorne said green belt development was not the right way to get more much-needed affordable housing for York.

He pledged to “work with other parties to secure a Local Plan that prioritises affordable housing”, but oppose what they called “massive car-dependent new settlements” in the green belt.