RYEDALE has scooped a £214,000 reward for allowing homes to be built in the district.

The cash is part of the Government New Homes Bonus, which pays local authorities about £1,000 for each house built, with an extra bonus of £350 for each home classed as ‘affordable’.

The district could be in line for £4.5 million from the fund over the next six years.

New businesses in Ryedale stand to benefit from a £100,000 fund being set up by the district council to help the economy.

Coun Geoff Acomb, chairman of the policy and resources committee, told the Ryedale Parish Forum meeting last Wednesday that £100,000 was being earmarked to aid new enterprises with the balance going into a community investment fund to benefit the 56 parishes in the district.

The biggest sum of £15,237 will go to Norton, while Pickering will get £10,380, Kirkbymoorside £10,138, Malton £6,192, and Foxholes and Butterwick £3,035.

The smallest sums of £364 will each go to Leavening, Helmsley, Buttercrambe and Acklam.

Council leader Coun Keith Knaggs said: “The New Homes Bonus is a reward for results,” but Coun Tommy Woodward described the money as “a bribe for building unwanted market housing” adding that the bonus should be split 50-50 for the building of affordable homes and the remainder given to parish councils to spend how they felt best.

Coun William Oxley, deputy mayor of Pickering, believed the £100,000 should be given as loans, not grants, and that the money should benefit communities where new homes had been built. The loans he believed, could help generate new jobs.

Coun Linda Cowling said the issue would be discussed at tomorrow’s meeting of the district council. “A lot of parishes might like to spend money on upgrading their facilities.”

Coun Jim Bailey, chairman of the North York Moors National Park Authority, believed the park’s parish forums would be a good place to decide how money should be spent from homes built in the park.

“It might be a case of the money being spent strategically in remote areas,” he added