CONSTRUCTION work at York’s biggest current housing development is continuing, unaffected by a parish council legal challenge - at least for the time being.

These pictures show that some homes on the Germany Beck site in Fulford are almost completed after decades of delays and planning wrangles over the controversial scheme.

And Persimmon Homes Yorkshire has confirmed that work has not been halted by Fulford Parish Council going to the High Court over a City of York Council decision to allow changes to the 650-home project.

The Press reported earlier this month that the parish is seeking a judicial review of City of York Council’s planning committee’s approval of Persimmon’s application to amend original plans.

Asked then whether the challenge would halt any building work, the firm said it would be discussing with homeowners privately how the "situation would be managed" and it had a "strategy in place for the short term inconvenience".

After The Press asked for further clarification as to whether construction work would be halted, Persimmon has subsequently issued a brief statement saying: “At this moment in time, construction is unaffected.”

The company has previously slated legal challenges to its scheme, saying at the planning meeting in October that there had already been four judicial review attempts, all of which had been found to be “totally without merit” and which had been at a substantial cost to the taxpayers of York.

A majority of councillors agreed with officers that the proposed alterations were not material, although a minority agreed with the parish that they were material.

The parish said it considered the design changes to be “detrimental”, significantly reducing the quality of the development compared to a reserved matters application approved in 2013, and it was in the public interest to challenge the decision.