AN MP said today that York's Derwenthorpe scheme should be called in for a public inquiry - because it raised issues of national significance.

Ryedale MP John Greenway has written a five-page letter to Government Planning Minister Keith Hill, explaining why he wants him to call in the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's (JRF) 540-home model village proposals on York's eastern outskirts.

City of York Council backed the scheme at a meeting in January, but then had to refer it to the Government for a possible inquiry because it owns most of the land.

The Government has previously made it clear that applications should only be called in if planning issues of national significance are involved. Calls for the Barbican redevelopment to be called in were turned down last year partly because it was not considered of national importance.

Mr Greenway told the minister that the JRF had said it viewed the development as a model to be replicated elsewhere, and was of national as well as local significance.

"Be in no doubt, therefore, that potentially this is the first of a number of model villages to be pursued across the nation as sustainable urban extensions," he said. "This alone surely raises an issue of national significance if this kind of development - and this approach to development - is to be replicated elsewhere."

He also raised concerns over protracted arguments about whether or not the site was in the York green belt, and claimed there had been departures from the normal planning process of national significance, justifying "full and independent scrutiny" through an inquiry.

He referred to an agreement between the council and foundation, under which the local authority will pay £1.25 million compensation if the development does not go ahead. He said this meant local residents had no confidence in the council's ability to make an independent determination of the application, and the public interest required an inquiry.

He also claimed that the proposals to provide access to the site through four existing neighbourhoods - Osbaldwick, Meadlands, Fifth Avenue and Temple Avenue - would turn quiet residential streets in major thoroughfares, and therefore meant that the development could not be described as "sustainable".

A JRF spokesman said it had always wanted to follow the proper procedures in consideration of the scheme. The matter was now in the hands of the Secretary of State, who would decide whether to call an inquiry.

Updated: 08:05 Friday, March 04, 2005