YORK council leader Andrew Waller says the go-ahead for Derwenthorpe is good news for families needing homes and construction workers needing jobs.

But opposition councillors claim the Liberal Democrat administration is to blame for long delays in building the 540-home model village at Osbaldwick.

The Press revealed yesterday how City of York Council believes the project – first proposed by the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust almost 11 years ago – can now go ahead, after the European Commission decided not to refer a breach of EU public procurement rules to the European Courts.

The council said the trust would ensure rules were followed in future by going out to tender to allow companies across the EU to bid to construct homes in four phases.

Mark Warters, the chairman of Osbaldwick Parish Council, which has fiercely opposed Derwenthorpe, said he would give a formal response to the decision next week, adding: “For now, I will only quote Yogi Berra in saying: ‘It ain’t over ’til it’s over’.”

Coun Waller, the Liberal Democrat council leader, said he would be meeting the trust next week to see how progress could be made. He said the decision was good news for families in the city and would deliver badly needed construction jobs.

“After the removal of uncertainty over the Terry’s site and council HQ, we are now getting major projects up and running in the city and this is the latest one,” he said.

But the council’s Tory group leader, Ian Gillies, claimed the Lib Dems had “once again failed in the governance of a development”.

He said Osbaldwick residents had been justified in questioning the process that resulted in the Derwenthorpe contract being granted. “Hopefully, now the appropriate procurement legal process can take place,” he said.

Tracey Simpson-Laing, Labour’s housing spokeswoman, said it was an “extreme shame” there had been such delays in providing affordable and eco-friendly housing in York because of the administration’s inability to follow procedures correctly.

“There are people waiting in York for these homes,” she said. “There’s a desperate need. They should have been built by 2008.”