PLANS to provide more than 50 low-cost homes for local people in the Yorkshire Dales have been thwarted after a funding bid failed.

Council members and officers are pressing for an urgent meeting with the Housing Corporation to learn why their application was unsuccessful.

Richmondshire District Council had earmarked five of its brownfield sites to be developed for affordable housing, together with privately-owned land in Askrigg, Hawes and Richmond.

It was hoped that 53 homes would be built in the next year and the project was based on the results of parish-wide housing need surveys carried out across the district.

Hopes were dashed last Friday when project leaders learned the Housing Corporation was willing to fund only three schemes - a total of 14 homes.

Coun Richard Dunn, chairman of the council's community committee, said: "After all the work that has been put in by local communities, parish councils, district councillors and officers, frankly it feels almost like a waste of time.

"A residents' perception survey for the district showed that the top two issues that people felt the council should be helping provide were employment for young people and affordable housing. The two are inextricably linked and the council worked hard with parishes and housing associations to provide what communities needed and wanted."

Officers and members had fulfilled the criteria set out in Government guidelines for applications and were keen to discover why the response had been so disappointing.

The successful schemes are for six houses at Askrigg, which still require planning permission, five at Earl Edwin Drive, Richmond, and three "purchase and repair" deals to bring older homes up to modern standards.

Coun Yvonne Peacock, in whose ward Askrigg lies, was pleased the village would have new homes but sorry that more would not be funded in other parts of the district.

"We put in a tremendous amount of work because we were determined to deliver these houses," she said. "The Countryside Agency puts out brochures telling us exactly what we must do to attract funding. We followed it to the letter and we were still unsuccessful."

Couns Dunn and Peacock attended a rural housing conference in London three weeks ago, when they discussed the issue with Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael and Richard Wakeman, chief executive of the Countryside Agency.

"Alun Michael did say that, if Richmondshire's bid for funding was not successful, he would want to be informed so he could investigate," said Coun Dunn. "Well, Mr Michael, there is a letter on its way to you."

Mr Wakeman has agreed to visit Richmondshire to discuss the issue in June. "We will take him to sites where we have planning permission, a housing association on board and a need demonstrated, but where the Housing Corporation has pulled the rug from under us," said Coun Dunn.

Following the Wensleydale housing needs survey, a similar exercise was carried out in the Catterick and Tunstall ward.

"This highlighted the need for eight affordable units, but it would appear we are wasting our time in trying for funding," said Coun Dunn.

Continued on page 3, col 8