HUGE skills shortages in the construction industry are threatening to hamper future major projects in and around York, it was disclosed.

Schemes planned for the York Central acres known as "the teardrop" behind York railway station as well as office schemes on available land at Monks Cross at Huntington, could be hit, say developers and skills authorities.

The Learning and Skills Council North Yorkshire will be part of a new forum set up for the region by the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) which will meet next month to identify local problems and solutions.

The shortage in York is part of a need to recruit 6,800 skilled tradespeople by the year 2006 if the Yorkshire and Humberside region is to meet its growth target.

The figures, which appear in a CITB forecast paper, suggest that the shortages are in all areas - carpenters, joiners, managers, electricians and bricklayers.

Lisa O'Toole, heading up the CITB's new Yorkshire and Humber Construction Skills Forum, said: "The LSC North Yorkshire is already looking at research into construction skills at York and we will work with them."

David Harbourne, executive director of the LSC North Yorkshire, said he was convinced there would not be enough skills to meet demands for developments like York Central. He said the solution was to encourage young people to choose the construction industry as a big-opportunity career and to help people halfway through other careers to retrain in construction.

"For that reason we are looking at the shortages regionally to see where and how we can provide extra training facilities that we are obviously going to need.

"The Government is increasing the amount LSCs can put into capital projects by several hundreds of millions of pounds over the next three years and we will be putting our case for a big share of that."

Martyn Harrison, chairman of the fast-expanding Malton-based S Harrison group, consisting of development and construction arms, said: "Continuing development at Monks Cross, and planned developments at the University of York and York Central will undoubtedly add to the pressure, although it may be some time before the impact is felt.

"Meaningful work at the York Central site, for example, is still five to ten years away and will span another five to ten years beyond that - time for the industry and government jointly to address the issues."

Updated: 10:11 Tuesday, January 28, 2003