Angry householders on an Exeter estate have been left in the lurch by the demise of the site’s developers.
Now they have accused the city council of ‘washing its hands’ of their problems.
Sewer works at Home Farm in Pinhoe have been left unfinished as part of a catalogue of problems left behind when the Burrington Estates Group went into administration last August.
It could cost half a million pounds to fix the sewers, and residents fear they will be left to foot the bill themselves. Green spaces and playgrounds have also been left unfinished, a meeting of the city council was told.
Residents used the public question time section of the meeting to raise their concerns.
One said residents had received no funding support from any authority and were being expected to self-fund the work the developer had been unable to complete.
And, she added, a promised meeting with South West Water, supported by the city council, had been cancelled with no prospect of another one taking place.
“Exeter City Council is clearly just washing its hands of us,” she said.
Cllr Susannah Patrick (Lab, Exwick) said the council was ‘concerned’ at the situation but homeowners were advised to contact South West Water to discuss the legal mechanisms around fixing the sewerage.
She said the city council was trying to rearrange the meeting that had been called off.
Another Home Farm resident said they were left paying for ‘systematic failures’ by authorities and agencies.
And another asked if the council expected residents to pay for the green spaces and playgrounds which had been left unfinished.
He was told that the planning permission given for the development put the responsibility for open spaces and play areas onto the developer, who had an ‘ongoing commitment’ to pay for it.
The city council could consider adopting the open spaces, but current financial constraints meant that was unlikely to happen.
Home Farm homeowners fear that while some will be prepared to pay towards sewerage and open spaces, others won’t be able to afford it.
Those who bought homes there say while they have no complaints about the houses themselves, they feel ‘in limbo’ due to the extent of unfinished works across the estate and materials abandoned on site.
South West Water says the financial responsibility to bring the sewers up to an adoptable standard rests with the developer.
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