AN INDEPENDENT election candidate has pledged to press for some of the money from one of York’s biggest housing schemes to be ploughed back into the area where it will be built if he wins.

Mark Warters, one of the chief critics of the 540-home Derwenthorpe “model village” development, wants a slice of the £5.65 million City of York Council received from the sale of the land to be used to benefit local residents.

The 46-year-old landscape gardener is running as an independent in the Osbaldwick ward at next week’s local elections and believes a portion of the money the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust paid the authority should be used to improve roads and create public open space.

Mr Warters, who chairs Osbaldwick Parish Council, said: “I want a fair deal for the area, because people living there will have to bear the brunt of this development.

“If I’m elected, there will be a letter on the desk of the council’s chief executive, Kersten England, first thing on the Monday after the election about this.

“Some money should be retained for the Osbaldwick area, because Tranby Avenue needs a full reconstruction and the open space which will be lost because of Derwenthorpe needs to be replaced.

“The council has received a massive windfall and I want to ensure the people of Osbaldwick see a fair portion. They deserve something from this scheme.”

Mr Warters said he decided to stand after becoming frustrated by the Derwenthorpe project and the council’s stance over controversial houses in multiple occupation, which he said are leading to family homes being lost in Osbaldwick.

He said: “I would oppose further applications for student housing in the ward and encourage the council and the University of York to provide more accommodation on its campus, where it belongs.

“With the parish council, I’ve always tried to get the views of local people across, and as a councillor I could do this from a position of greater strength, rather than being somebody who is voted in and then disappears behind a desk in the Guildhall for four years.”