ONE of York’s biggest housing developments will be blocked by a European Commission investigation for at least another month or two.

The Commission still has to decide whether a land deal between City of York Council and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust for the site of the 540-home Derwenthorpe model village at Osbaldwick should be referred to the European Court of Justice.

News of the further delay came as Labour councillor and parliamentary candidate James Alexander hand-delivered a letter to Brussels from Osbaldwick Parish Council, supporting the commission’s stance over the deal.

The commission said last year the council should have carried out a tendering process with other developers rather than allocating the land straight to the trust.

A commission spokeswoman said today a batch of commission decisions had recently been published, and Derwenthorpe was not among them. This meant the earliest possible opportunity for a decision was when the next batch was announced, which would not be for another month or two.

York’s Liberal Democrat council leader Andrew Waller last autumn went to Brussels to try to save Derwenthorpe.

Coun Alexander, who is Labour’s prospective candidate for York Outer, said that despite not always sharing the views of Osbaldwick Parish Council, he wanted to show he could still represent them. He paid for his trip to Brussels, where he had also presented an anti-BNP petition.

In the letter, parish clerk Brian Lakeman said the parish had previously highlighted the “unsatisfactory nature” of the council/trust contract, and it was therefore most encouraging that the commission considered it infringed the law.

The parish council hoped the law would be applied not only fairly but rigidly in this case. It was concerned by Coun Waller’s lobbying and hoped the commission would not be swayed by “peripheral arguments,” adding: “The central point must be that the development contract was simply awarded and not tendered.”

The trust said it was not part of the EC’s discussions with the Office of Government Commerce over the sale of the land. “As such we are unable to comment on how long that process is likely to take.”