A housing company has apologised for leaving the roads around a Killingworth estate unfinished for several months following a backlash from residents.
Work on Lakeside View started in 2014 and, while all the homes were finished last year, Barratt Homes are yet to put some finishing touches to the estate.
Questions have also been raised about promises made by the company as part of the planning process which haven’t materialised yet.
On a page now deleted from their website, Barratt described the estate as a “beautiful development”.
But some residents said roads have been left in a poor condition, low quality turf has been used on grassed areas and a toucan crossing to allow people to cross over to the shops safely has not been installed.
A 35-year-old woman, who has lived on the estate for two-and-a-half years with her husband and 18-month-old son, said residents are being let down by the firm.
She said: “Personally we’ve had a really good experience with Barratt on the house.
“They’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do but the state of our estate is a real concern.
“All we want is for someone to work with us to identify a list of issues and to understand when and how they’ll be completed.
“The quality of the roads is actually damaging people’s cars.”
The woman also questioned Barratt’s commitment to a recommendation made during the planning process that the company should plant more trees and make other general improvements to the environment.
On top of that, she said parking bays assigned to individual homes have been mixed up, meaning some people are parking outside different houses.
Barratt Homes said it will complete the development soon and then the upkeep of the roads will be handed to North Tyneside Council.
A spokesperson for the company said: “We apologise to residents for any inconvenience the works have caused.
“Barratt Homes is committed to ensuring that the estate is completed and adopted by the local authority as soon as possible.
“We have been completing a series of remedial works to the site which have taken a bit longer than anticipated.
“However, we are working as hard as we can with our subcontractors to ensure that these are completed as soon as possible.
“Once we have a completion date we will let residents know when this will be.”
