BELEAGUERED residents who are enduring a nightmare on a new housing development have had their plight raised in Parliament.

Householders at The Banks in Silsden say a huge list of problems – inside and outside their homes – has been left unresolved by the company behind the scheme.

Some residents have been waiting two years for issues to be sorted.

Complaints range from cracks in walls to unfinished landscaping, and the state of the road has come under fire.

Other problems include blocked surface drains, and the absence of sewer connections to the mains meant a tanker was having to come in every week.

Developer Harron Homes Yorkshire has said previously that difficulties caused by the pandemic meant the site "had not been finished as hoped".

But Keighley MP Robbie Moore, who says more than 30 of the 50 households at the development have contacted him to raise concerns, claims the pandemic can't be blamed.

And he used the first parliamentary debate of the year to spotlight the issue and call for new processes to be put in place to compel housebuilders to complete homes to expected standards in "a timely manner", or face financial penalties.

"The issues have to be resolved within a respectful timeframe without the pandemic being used as an excuse," he told fellow MPs.

"The responsibility here lies solely with the developer, Harron Homes."

Mr Moore said he and Craven ward district councillor Rebecca Whitaker had met many residents at the site – which is also known locally as High Banks – to discuss the problems and he subsequently had a meeting with Harron Homes’ managing director, but “promised” updates on progress to improve the estate had not materialised.

In the parliamentary debate, Mr Moore said residents had been “deeply let down” and he called on the developer to “urgently do the right thing” and resolve the problems.

The chamber also heard from Halifax MP Holly Lynch, who highlighted a similar housing development in her constituency where residents had been “badly let down” by the same company, and MPs Mark Eastwood and Jason McCartney have raised concerns in Parliament too about Harron Homes schemes in their West Yorkshire constituencies.

After the debate, Housing Minister Eddie Hughes agreed to meet with Mr Moore to discuss the matters further.

Mr Moore added: “Buying a house is the most important purchase someone will make – it should come with a sense of pride, not betrayal.

“I have chased Harron Homes to sort out the long list of outstanding issues on multiple occasions. It is a disgrace that the developer continues to show complete contempt towards the many residents at High Banks.

“It is disgraceful that the site is not up to the standards promised, and I will continue to do all I can to make sure the company puts this right.

"Housing developers should not be allowed to get away with riding roughshod over people who purchase their homes in good faith.

"After raising this in Parliament, I will now meet with the Housing Minister to explore further measures which could be adopted to put more pressure on Harron Homes to sort matters out.”

Councillor Whitaker said she was “appalled” at what the residents were going through.

“They have been let down very badly by Harron Homes,” she added.

“Residents have paid good money for their homes and now feel abandoned by the developer. This clearly should not be happening.

“I have raised this matter at all levels of Bradford Council. Other than an officer from building regulations who offered help, I have received very little communication from anybody else.”

She is calling on planning bosses to take proactive steps to ensure developers adhere to all conditions.

Tony Lee, managing director of Harron Homes Yorkshire, told the Keighley News: "Since meeting with MP Robbie Moore regarding The Banks development in Silsden, we have continued to actively deal with customers’ snags.

"These are not individually extensive, although we accept there are more customers with snags than we would like at this stage. Our customer care team is in contact with customers to reduce the outstanding items as soon as we possibly can.

"The condition of the roads is the primary source of complaints that we had received before meeting up with Mr Moore, however by the end of October most remedial work to the kerbs and pavements had been completed.

"Harron Homes Yorkshire has surfaced several sites over the last 12 months to the satisfaction of the local highway authorities during challenging times and we are fully aware of the need to complete our sites in the West Yorkshire area to that same standard. There are however some remedial items at The Banks which are to be corrected before we can do that.

“We are conscious of the inevitable disruption to our customers when works start, so we have engaged with expert adoptions co-ordinators to ensure anything unforeseen is limited and has mitigation already planned.

"We have been communicating with customers regarding the roads and sewers within the development, and as soon as we are able to commence works we will be informing residents of the actions to be taken.

"We apologise to all our customers for the timeframes taken to deal with some of these matters; we have actively sought solutions which have not always been easy to resolve in order to move these particular developments forward.

"I am confident that all of these developments will have completed roads, sewers and open spaces in the first half of 2022."