MORE than 100 new homes could be built on a brownfield site between Selby and Tadcaster.

Bellway Homes Ltd has submitted plans to Selby District Council to create 119 new homes on land at Church Fenton Airbase.

A report submitted to planners said the development would focus on an area of the site which has been “unused since 1992 and since 2000 has been deemed surplus to requirements”, adjacent to RAF Church Fenton - now a film and television studio, and home to sets for ITV’s Victoria.

Under the plans put forward by developers, the new 119 home site would include 41 two-bedroom properties, 21 three-bedroom properties, and 57 four-bedroom properties, in a mix of styles and sizes, but planning documents do not specify how many of these properties would be considered affordable housing.

Stuart Natkus, planning director at planning and design consultancy Barton Willmore, said the plans would create “a sustainable, attractive development with a village green feature that’s in keeping with the surrounding area”.

He said: “These plans will not only deliver much-needed new homes, but also significant regeneration of a derelict brownfield site. Barton Willmore secured outline planning permission for this site some years ago, so it’s great to see a developer now driving forward proposals.”

An ecologist for North Yorkshire County Council called on the council to hold off from making a decision “until further bat survey work is undertaken and submitted” by developers, after historic bat reports showed creatures living at the site, and called for “veteran trees” to be retained on site.

The proposed development is also expected to include a new access road from Busk Lane, and use existing bus routes, services and facilities, according to the plans.

The report says the new housing estate would also aim to support and be sustained by the recently-approved extension to the Church Fenton Studio development, which has full planning permission for new creative, digital and media facilities and commercial TV and film studios.