Residents paying for 'mud hole' and 'jungle'

A DEVELOPER has been rapped by council enforcement officers for failing to finish landscaping work on an estate years after building the houses.

- By GARETH LIGHTFOOT

Stockton Council is “considering our next steps” after it said Avant Homes did not comply with a breach notice at their Tall Trees site in Yarm.

This comes after complaints that the homes were built years ago, but landscaping which was part of the original 2015 planning permission is still not done, despite residents having to pay a maintenance charge, leaving them with a “mud hole” and an overgrown “jungle”.

The council says Avant Homes has not complied with a planning condition to come up with “a detailed scheme for landscaping and tree and/or shrub planting and construction techniques for pits in hard surfacing and root barriers” to improve the appearance of the site near Worsall Road, Kirklevington.

The work was supposed to have been done in “the first planting and seeding season following the occupation of the buildings or the completion of the development”.

The notice to carry out landscaping, weeding, seeding, planting, replacing a tree and fitting vehicle barriers was meant to be complied with by the end of November, but the council says this has not yet happened.

Avant Homes says it carried out landscaping works “but certain areas have unfortunately failed” and they were working to resolve the “regrettable situation”.