THE bitter battle to stop a 540-home model village being built on their doorstep has cost Osbaldwick residents more than £30,000, it was revealed today.

The village's parish council originally set aside £10,000, for the legal costs involved in making representations to the planning inquiry into the Derwenthorpe development, proposed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

But residents later forked out an extra £20,000 towards the council's annual precept to meet the growing fees involved.

The inquiry into into the scheme, and the 720-home Germany Beck development, in Fulford, was held during June and July.

Osbaldwick Parish Council clerk Brian Lakeman said villagers had been given "value for money" at the hearing.

"In the first instance we set aside £10,000 from all the cash we had to hand at that stage up to April 5, 2006," he told The Press. "It was put towards the legal costs that would be incurred fighting this inquiry.

"Subsequently, we submitted a precept for £20,000, anticipating that the cost would be a lot more than that, and this has proved to be the case.

"The total amount we've spent, all of which has been declared in open meetings and shown in the minutes of those meetings, excluding VAT, is £30,315.46."

Mr Lakeman said the planning inspectorate had told the parish council that it was currently analysing documents from the inquiry, and that the Secretary of State, Ruth Kelly, would make her decision on or before April 11, 2007.

"We're fairly confident that we've put a good case forward and we're reasonably optimistic," Mr Lakeman said.

"We feel it was money well spent, and we scrutinised the amounts all the way through the process. I think residents have been given good value for money.

"It's just a matter of waiting now."

The Press recently reported that the cost to York taxpayers for the two public inquiries was about £400,000 - about £100,000 lower than expected.

The inquiries - one into into the major housing schemes at Fulford and Osbaldwick, and the other into plans for the expansion of the University of York - are the biggest in York since the Coppergate inquiry of 2002.

All three schemes have met with strong opposition, on issues including potential increases in traffic, and building on open land.