A FURTHER £2.275 million could be put towards keeping the York Central project going while the council waits for news on Government funding for the scheme.

A Government announcement about whether York will get £77.1 million of essential funding was due in March.

A spokesman for the council said the bid for funding is at an advanced stage with a decision expected in the autumn.

A City of York Council report prepared for senior councillors asks them to approve the extra cash to “maintain project momentum” until May in the absence of a decision.

Councillors already put £750,000 towards keeping the project going for four months in July.

The extra cash would be used for design and planning permission costs.

The report says: “If the [Government housing infrastructure] funding is not forthcoming and if the scheme does not go ahead then an element of these costs would be classed as abortive and need to be written off back to revenue.

“The potential level of abortive costs is assessed at £4,485,000 based on expenditure to May 2020.

“This is a significant sum in the context of the overall council finances however this would be mitigated by enterprise zone retained business rates already collected at the site (estimated at £1.3 million to the end of 2019/20) as well as future more limited development on the site from the existing infrastructure.”

The proposals will be discussed at an executive meeting at West Offices on Thursday at 5.30pm.