MORE than a million pounds was spent creating the planning vision for York’s future, part of which now lies in tatters, The Press can reveal.

A Freedom of Information request to City of York Council has shown that about £1.1 million was spent between March 2006 and March 2012 on the city’s Local Development Framework (LDF).

The work included the creation of a Core Strategy, which mapped out how York should be developed over the next 20 years but which has now been withdrawn in the wake of planners’ controversial decision to approve a community stadium and new stores at Monks Cross.

Other work for the LDF included the creation of a Statement of Community Involvement, a City Centre Area Action Plan and work on the York Northwest scheme.

The council said the spending included £123,623 on consultation between 2005 and 2012, of which £43,552 could be directly attributed to the Core Strategy.

Paul Cordock, a quantity surveyor and persistent critic of the authority, who obtained the figure, said he was disappointed it was only an estimate and only covered six of the seven years that the council had spent money on the exercise.

He said: “I do wonder how much more it will cost, and whether it could have been carried out in a far shorter period and at a far lower cost,” he said.

Coun Dave Merrett, cabinet member for planning, transport and sustainability, said work in the past year had improved the LDF but said: “Changes in Government policy have completely changed the framework in which the LDF core strategy is assessed.”

He said the council would work quickly to agree a plan that reflected new legislation and York’s special character and said a lot of the hard work was already done.

Richard Wood, the council’s assistant director for strategic planning and transport said the work had also supported planning applications and major development projects and said: “The majority of the work – particularly the consultation undertaken and evidence-based studies produced to support the LDF – will be used to support future spatial plans for the city.”

Green councillor Dave Taylor said: “While I would expect that not all this money is wasted, it horrifies me that the planning committee should have been so distracted by the shiny bauble of a new stadium to jettison most of York’s policies on transport, city-centre-first retail, air pollution, carbon emissions, and job-creation.”

Conservative leader Ian Gillies said: “The real lost cost has been in the goodwill of the many York residents and interested parties who have responded to consultations and contributed to the debates. Much of this good will has been lost or damaged by the Monks Cross development decision.”