THE collapse of a major building firm has seen work grind to a halt on a 113-home housing development at Moor Lane in Menston.
Local residents have raised concerns and say the development, which was due to be completed in 2024, currently looks like a "bomb site".
But developer Yorkshire Housing has reassured residents it plans to finish building the homes and it has begun a search for a new contractor.
Gateshead-based building firm Tolent officially called in administrators on Monday following a weekend of uncertainty over the company’s future.
Staff were sent home early on Friday and on Monday 313 of the companies’ employees were made redundant with immediate effect.
"It's quite a substantial housing site in the fields at the back of my property," said Dudley Pounds, a resident on Moorfield Avenue, Menston, whose home overlooks the Moor Lane development. "It's a bomb site.
"All the work has completely stopped. There is nothing happening at all. It's a real mess.
"They've installed a massive attenuation tank and dug a big crater to do it."
Mr Pounds also said there is concrete pipework littered across the site but work on the 113 homes is not complete.
He said: "No houses are completed yet and there is a jungle of fencing on site."
"The development is only 400 yards from the centre of the village. It's been a substantial alteration to Menston as it was.
"It was a long, hard battle to try and object to this development but we lost. Everyone is upset about it."
His wife, Patricia Pounds, added: "It's a bomb site and nobody is doing anything.
"It used to be green fields with cows grazing. Now it's terrible. It's awful to look out on."
Sian Webster, Director of Development at Yorkshire Housing, said: “We’re sorry to hear that Tolent has gone into administration. Tolent were in the early stages of building 113 homes on behalf of Yorkshire Housing in Menston.
“We’d like to reassure people living in the area that we plan to finish building the homes and that we’ve now started the process of finding a new contractor. The site has been secured while we work quickly to do this.
“It’s a difficult time for the construction industry at the moment with the price of materials making it more expensive to build new homes. However, Yorkshire Housing will keep on building and have plans to continue to deliver thousands of new affordable homes across Yorkshire.”
A Christmas shut-down and a painful cash crunch in January and February took its toll on the building firm.
James Lumb, Managing Director at Interpath Advisory and Joint Administrator, said: "In a sector which typically operates on wafer-thin margins, this can often prove to be insurmountable, and unfortunately, so has been the case for Tolent.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here