Four sites have been shortlisted for an environmentally-friendly new town of up to 15,000 homes - Gascoigne Wood, Burn Airfield, Church Fenton and Willow Green - and all four are in the Selby district.

Last month the Government announced the sites around the UK where eco-towns are likely to be built. They left the last slot on the shortlist open, but said it would be within the Leeds City Region - an area spreading from York to Huddersfield to Barnsley.

Leeds City Region officials then commissioned consultants GVA Grimley to draw up a list of possible locations and this morning consultants told leaders on Selby Council all would be in their area.

Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Selby Nigel Adams said: "A lot of people are absolutely furious about this. There are already many new homes in the Selby area unsold and the last thing people want is a new town built on green fields in the area."

Eco-towns are set to include up to 15,000 homes in low-carbon developments, intended to tackle the twin issues of climate change and affordable housing.

The successful bids will have to include between 30 per cent and 50 per cent affordable homes in settlements of between 5,000 and 20,000 homes, none of which are to be sited on green belt land, will have to be zero-carbon as a whole and be an "exemplar" in at least one area of environmental sustainability.

The Government received 57 proposals overall from local authorities and developers across the country and there were believed to have been at least six from Yorkshire and the Humber.

Ministers unveiled the national shortlist of 15 last month. It included Rossington, in South Yorkshire, would offer up to 15,000 homes on the former colliery village of Rossington, three miles south of Doncaster. It could include 1,500 affordable homes.

The full national shortlist is:

Pennbury, Leicestershire

Manby and Strubby, Lincolnshire

Curborough, Staffordshire

Middle Quinton, Warwickshire

Bordon-Whitehill, Hampshire

Weston Otmoor, Oxfordshire

Ford, West Sussex

Imerys China Clay Community, Cornwall

Coltishall, Norfolk

Hanley Grange, Cambridgeshire

Marston Vale and New Marston, Bedfordshire

Elsenham, Essex

Rushcliffe, Nottinghamshire

Rossington, South Yorkshire

Leeds City Region - four locations in Selby now proposed

Over the next six months, the shortlisted schemes will be reduced to no more than 10, which will then be subject to a full planning process.

Full story in Friday's Yorkshire Post.

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