Scarborough Borough councillors have backed plans to form a new company to deliver hundreds of affordable homes across the borough.
£348k has been allocated for the Borough Council's Better Homes Project which will see the creation of a joint venture with a housing association or registered housing provider.
It will use council owned land to build the houses in Scarborough, Filey, Whitby and Eastfield.
Council Leader Steve Siddons says there is a great need for affordable housing in the borough.
The new company will build houses on council owned land, much of which is currently open space.
That's lead to several hundred comments being received by the council many expressing concern over the potential loss of open space.
Cabinet member for Inclusive Growth, Councillor Liz Colling, says there will be opportunities to discuss any issues with individual sites as the project progresses.
The joint venture was not universally welcomed at the full council meeting.
Conservative deputy leader, Cllr Heather Phillips, said that her group had “absolutely no issue with affordable housing being provided” but felt that the scheme on offer was not the way to do it.
Addressing the cabinet member for Inclusive Growth, Cllr Liz Colling, Cllr Phillips said:
“Can I just say, deliver deliver deliver.
“Give us a deadline when you are going to deliver but not with this model.
“I know this is gonna sound strange but I do not think you are being ambitious enough.”
Cllrs Mike Cockerill and Glenn Goodberry both objected to parcels of land under consideration in their respective wards of Filey and Whitby.
Cllr Sam Cross, leader of the Yorkshire Coast Independents Alliance, also offered concerns on the use of the council-owned land.
He said:
“I think one thing that we do forget, is that eight of these 10 sites are public open spaces and in these current Covid times people want public open space.”
Cabinet member Cllr Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff from the Independent Group cautioned that the council needed to address the issue.
She said:
“The fact is that the private market is not going to deliver the affordable housing that our residents need.”
The cabinet approved the spending of the £348,000, which will be recovered from the joint venture, by 22 votes to 12 with two abstentions.
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