A DEVELOPER has been criticised after failing to build a community centre which it allegedly promised to create as part of a new housing estate in Yate.


Residents of Elswick Park, on the former Sea Stores site in Kennedy Way, have been fighting Taylor Wimpey for over a year after apparent plans to build a community venue at the entrance to the 228-home estate failed to materialise.


And Taylor Wimpey is due in court tomorrow after South Gloucestershire Council (SGC) took legal action over an alleged breach of planning conditions relating to planting trees and shrubs.


Zoe Ford, 37, a resident of Elswick Park, said: “I bought my property in December 2011 with the verbal guarantee from Taylor Wimpey that the land at the entrance was allocated for a community space.


“Since this time the land has been left and it is in an unusable state, not to mention the fact that it is an eyesore which brings down the whole estate.


“As a community we would like somewhere for the children to play safely out of harm’s way, which is essential on a large family development such as Elswick Park.”


Yate Town councillor Chris Willmore was equally angry.


She said: “Over more than 12 months, as councillors and residents, we have tried to get Taylor Wimpey to meet their obligations to look after the trees and open spaces, and replace ones that did not survive. They have refused.


“We will be campaigning to get the planners to make them stick to the original master plan – to hand the entire remaining part of the site over for community use.”

Last year Taylor Wimpey applied to SGC for permission to turn the land earmarked for the community venue into a cul-de-sac of nine houses, but the plan was rejected by councillors.


This week, the developer told the Gazette that it would work with the community to decide what to do with the land.


A Taylor Wimpey spokesman said: “We are in the early stages of discussing possible options for this land and will consult with neighbours and the wider community in due course.”


The spokesman added: “The court hearing due to take place tomorrow relates to failed planting of trees and shrubs at Elswick Park, which the council considers to be in breach of a planning condition.”


A council spokesman told the Gazette that the council had no option but to take legal action over the trees and shrubs.


“Our enforcement team has served the developer with a notice for a breach of planning conditions,” he said.


“The case will be heard in court on Friday, June 12.”