YORK's residents and businesses are facing several years of planning uncertainty, a senior Labour councillor claimed today.

Labour leader Coun Dave Merrett claimed the Liberal Democrat council's Local Development Scheme was a "complete shambles".

He said a revised version of the scheme, which was set to be examined by the authority's Executive next week, would feed into York's wider Local Development Framework (LDF).

He claimed the council was now even further away from adopting the Framework than it was two years ago. "The Lib Democrat's strategic management is appalling," he said.

He claimed that over the past two years, £190,000 and "countless hours" of officer time had been wasted on an abortive consultation.

He said: "The Lib Dems have also wasted a further year in delays to getting the LDF in place, and now the end date has been shifted back a staggering two years. The whole thing has been a shambles."

Coun Merrett said the countywide Structure Plan expired this autumn, and the council only had until the end of March to legally roll its policies forward.

"The Lib Dems were hoping the key policies from the Countywide Structure Plan were picked up within the Regional Spatial Strategy, but that's looking very uncertain," he said.

"What is their Plan B? Since the County Structure Plan is the only currently adopted local plan document, and it contains the green belt and its outer boundary definition, they are putting the green belt at risk. The Lib Dems certainly should not be allowed to do this.

"This is all seriously worrying. This will lead to several further years of planning uncertainty for York residents and businesses, which should not have happened. It will place York's Greenbelt at risk, probably lead to additional planning and add to development costs and uncertainty, which could negatively affect housing supply and businesses needing to expand."