BARNSLEY’S planning boss has admitted affordable housing promises made as part of house-building deals in some of the town’s more affluent communities have failed to deliver accommodation in those communities.

Instead, Barnsley Council has tended to take money from developers towards affordable housing rather than insisting those developers build affordable houses themselves.

But spiralling housing costs to the west of the borough has meant the local authority could not then afford to build in these areas.

The result is homes have gone up miles away instead, in a move which has infuriated some residents who say young people in the district’s villages have been priced out of the housing market.

Now the council is looking to ensure that future schemes result in new ‘affordable’ homes - either rented or part owned - are built on site.

Head of planning Joe Jenkinson said: “It is certainly true there have been a few sites where we have taken contributions from a developer to build affordable housing elsewhere.

“The emphasis is now on producing them onsite,” he said.

Mr Jenkinson was speaking at Thurgoland Parish Council, explaining a move by Barnsley Council to identify ten new sites in Barnsley villages for housing development in the years ahead.

Despite earlier decisions to put affordable housing allocated from Penistone district building projects elsewhere in the district, it is now recognised the need for such homes is so great that three in every ten new houses in the area, on big developments, must be given over for ‘affordable’ use in future.

That compares to just ten per cent in the east of Barnsley, where property prices are considerably lower.

There has been concern across the Penistone district that most new homes are ‘executive’ style dwellings which attract people moving into the area, rather than being within reach for those getting onto the housing ladder.

Mr Jenkinson said the council was unable to control the way the market operates, beyond setting the affordable housing targets.

In Thurgoland, two new sites have been earmarked, though a decision on whether to formally adopt either for housing has yet to be taken.

However, a planning application for one site, near the war memorial, has been submitted already.

That land is not in the green belt, making it difficult for the council to resist the application under current rules.

However, the proposal includes creating an access onto the A629 near the crossroads in the village.

Mr Jenkinson told the meeting there were issues with the access proposals which would have to be resolved before the scheme would be acceptable to the council’s highways department.

Villagers have complained for years about high traffic speeds on that stretch of road, which has a 30mph limit, as vehicles accelerate away from the village.