THREE new “garden villages” could be on the way for York, according to the city council’s latest version of a long-term city development plan.

More than 5,500 new homes could be built at the three sites, along with schools, shops, health and community facilities and new transport links.

The proposals appear in the new Local Plan draft and the biggest of the three sites is west of Elvington Lane, on land earlier versions of the plan earmarked for a new village called Whinthorpe.

Now proposals put 3,339 homes on that land, with 2,200 to be built in the next 15 years. The city council also revealed that while York missed out on large scale government funding for infrastructure on the site, it has been given £75,000 to start looking at the development.

Elsewhere, in the city two other sites have been earmarked for development. One, east of Metcalfe Lane near Osbaldwick, could contain 845 new homes while a larger site on land west of Wigginton Road could have 1,348 new homes.