Residents living with a catalogue of problems on their £25million housing estate have taken their fight for action to the Deputy Prime Minister.

Members of Apperley Bridge Development Residents' Association, or ABDRA, have sent Secretary of State for Transport and Environment John Prescott a copy of their report on the luxury estate's problems.

It states that residents have faced a mountain of unresolved problems since work on the development was started in 1990.

The report says Haigh Beck, which runs through the estate, has repeatedly overrun its banks, flooding properties with sewage.

And residents claim landscaping and street lighting work is still not finished.

The situation has been complicated because original developer Maltsword has gone into administration.

Bradford Council's town and country planning sub-committee is due to consider the estate's problems at its next meeting, on September 24.

ABDRA spokesman Joan Brown said: "We thought that Mr Prescott should be aware of what is going on here and the problems we are having. We want everyone at the committee meeting to know about our situation. We are showing that we mean business.

"We want this estate to be the lovely estate it could be and the one we were promised when we moved in."

A local government Ombudsman is currently looking into allegations of maladministration levelled against Bradford Council over its handling of the situation and its alleged failure to enforce planning conditions on developers.

Ward Councillor Jeanette Sunderland said: "It is right that this issue is raised at the highest Government level.

"The people at Apperley Bridge have paid millions in council tax and I would expect the planning committee to take a very close look at their problems. It is in everyone's interests to bring this matter to a speedy conclusion."

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