RESIDENTS are appalled at what they say is a housing developer’s flagrant disregard for ensuring mud from a building site is not dragged onto neighbouring roads.

Persimmon Homes, which is responsible for a housing development at Deerness Heights in Stanley Crook, has been accused of clogging drains and leaving piles of mud on residential roads.

A condition of the approved planning permission was that all vehicles leaving the site during the construction period must be cleaned to prevent mud being dragged out.

However, resident Lea Smeaton said he is completely disgusted at the state of the roads and the blocked drains.

“There are clumps of mud inches deep all over, the state of our roads is utterly appalling,” he said.

“The lorry drivers have not only driven over and damaged pavements, they have now taken to actually driving over my front lawn, causing even more damage.

“As you can imagine I am completely disgusted with the absolute contempt persimmon have for us residents.

“I have spoken to my neighbours who have previously been on to Persimmon's customer care line, we are all in agreement this situation cannot continue.

“There are several children on the estate who are confined to their homes as they cannot walk on the roads. Much less ride bikes etc.”

A spokesman for Persimmon Homes said: “The very nature of our house building business will generate mud and clay deposits whilst we are undertaking ground works to our new homes.

“Road cleaning is assessed as conditions and specific activities on site dictate, by means of a road brush fork lift attachment and hired mechanical plant.

“A combination of these measures is implemented as and when site conditions dictate and are at the discretion of the site management team.”

Councillor John Hart said he regularly inspects Deerness Heights and is often disgusted by the condition of the roads.

"Persimmon has repeatedly promised to sort the situation out but it seems their efforts so far have been completely inadequate,” he said.

“As a long-time resident it’s great to see Stanley Crook thriving, and a lot of that is due to Persimmon’s investment, but they have to get their act together and do right by the community they have created.”

The spokesman for Persimmon Homes added: “In addition all surface water road gullies are programmed to be pressure jet cleaned this week to facilitate the easy dispersion of water which may be more prevalent during the autumn and winter months.”