Council will help Hartford Hall residents

Posted by The Journal on Nov 5, 09 10:45 AM in Councils

Families living on an unfinished upmarket estate have been promised council help after their housing developers were placed into administration.

Residents who bought expensive homes on the Hartford Hall Estate near Bedlington, Northumberland, say they have been left with rutted roads, unsightly open spaces and inadequate street lighting.

Hartford Hall Estate

Directors of development company Hartford Hall Estate Ltd Ho Sanderson and his wife Margaret were being prosecuted over alleged breaches of planning conditions.

But the company became insolvent and was placed in administration earlier this year. The court case was dropped by Northumberland County Council in September in the wake of the firm's collapse.

That came after Mr Sanderson suffered severe injuries to his face and neck in a shooting accident near his home in March

With the company unable to finance the work, the residents on the estate face the prospect of having to pay for the completion of unfinished work.

Owners of the 71 properties are contemplating splitting equally between them the cost of finishing the estate's roads, landscaping and street lighting. They approached the county council for quotes for the work, with a view to the authority's in-house team possibly doing the job.

The council has already been given clearance to access the land to carry out the necessary work, by the company's administrators Newcastle based Grant Thornton.

And at a meeting of the council's executive, members agreed to provide the quotes, and to do the job if asked.

They backed an officer's view that providing a quote would "provide much-needed assistance to the residents of Hartford Hall".

Speaking afterwards, Christine Purdon, secretary of the Hartford Hall residents' association, said: "We are very pleased that the council is looking at it for us because that is going to be very helpful. When we look at the possibility of carrying out the works hopefully we will be able to do so."

A spokeswoman for the council said: "Our legal team have spoken to the administrators and they are happy for us to do the work if that is what residents want."

Hartford Hall Estate has been a troubled project since the residents first moved in four years ago, amid claims of problems and delays with work on their new homes.

There have been sewage pollution incidents in the nearby River Blyth and protests by residents against plans by the developers to build more houses to fund the completion of the estate.

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