CRAVEN'S local development plan has so far cost council tax payers more than a million pounds, it has been revealed.

The plan - which has so far taken six years - is likely to cost Craven District Council a further £150,000 before it is finally adopted, which is likely to be at the end of the year, or early 2018.

Councillors recently learnt that it had proved difficult to recruit permanent staff to work on the plan - which is seen as protection against unwanted development - and that it had become necessary to employ more expensive, agency staff - believed to be around £2,500 each month per member of staff.

In an email to all councillors, and in response to requests for an update by Cllr David Ireton, strategic manager, David Smurthwaite explained unexpected costs of preparing the plan had been down to the government moving the goalposts.

The cost so far includes almost half a million pounds spent at the beginning of the process at the end of 2010 and into 2011 which proved to be abortive work, after the government moved from one system to another.

"This in effect meant that we had to start again so any work from 2010/11 back to the beginning was not required. We believe in that period we spent £484,000 on the local plan which was abortive work," he said.

After 2011, the process introduced new costs, including housing targets, which added another £80,000 of consultancy fees, and two more years of staff time - costing a further £484,000 to £677,000.

The email included the latest timetable for completion of the plan, which expects public consultation of the draft to take place in June and for it to be submitted to the secretary of state in late August.

Mr Smurthwaite told the Craven Herald: “The costs arising from government changes to the process of developing the local plan have been completely out of our hands. We have no choice but to follow the processes set out and it is crucial that we follow government guidelines so as to prepare a robust plan for the future of the district.”

Cllr Robert Heseltine said:"It is scandalous that after spending over £1 million of council tax payers money in times of austerity, that we have no local plan in place. Developers are out of control across Craven, and the question must be, who has benefitted. Its certainly not the environment or the infrastructure of Craven."

Cllr Peter Madeley said: "Its an obscene amount of money, and the plan will not now be out until the end of the year. The cost and the timescale is really not acceptable. I hope I will live to see the local plan published. As it is, the cost has been immense and it has been an absolute gift to developers."

At last week's Policy Committee meeting, Cllr Ireton said completion of the plan was the most important task facing the authority.

And he criticised a council monitoring report which put the plan at medium risk 'amber' when he said it should be at the highest 'red'.

Cllr Simon Myers said the council was being 'disingenuous'. "Its bright red, deep red, it is an embarrassing scarlet," he said, adding that Gargrave had spent much time and money completing its neighbourhood plan, but that it was worthless until the completion of the Craven Local Plan.

At the meeting, chief executive, Paul Shevlin, said completion of the document was as important to officers as it was to councillors and that it had already taken up an 'extortionate' amount of time and resources.

He said he would also make sure regular and updated timetables of the plan's progress would be made available to both councillors and the public.