St Mary's Park development in Stannington 'looking better' after residents slammed house builder Bellway

Developer Bellway was heavily criticised in October over a number of issues at St Mary’s Park near Stannington, including a large amount of construction waste left on the site.

At a meeting of the Castle Morpeth Local Area Committee that month, the deputy leader of Northumberland County Council called on the company to “get a grip” and provide residents with “what it promised them”.

Principal planning officer Judith Murphy, providing an update on the situation, said: “Bellway have submitted two new applications to come to the committee in July. It does now look better, the bricks and rubble have been removed and the site is starting to take shape in line with what they should have done.

“It’s looking significantly better.”

Coun Mary Murphy, however, was unhappy at the amount of work it had taken to force the developer’s hand.

She said: “Why does it take a community to draw up a petition to force developers to do what they’re supposed to do. It’s not okay.”

Coun Murphy commented that Bellway was not the only developer who had been involved in such a situation, adding: “It is all of the developers.”

More than 300 people had signed the original petition calling for action. There were further issues on the development in January, when Bellway was forced to fill in sink holes that appeared on the site.

The developer said it would complete any required remedial work to solve the issue.