Hartford Hall residents promised council help after developers hit administration

Nov 5 2009 by Brian Daniel, The Journal

FAMILIES living on an unfinished upmarket estate have been promised council help after their housing developers were placed into administration.

Residents who bought expensive homes on the Hartford Hall Estate near Bedlington, Northumberland, say they have been left with rutted roads, unsightly open spaces and inadequate street lighting.

Directors of development company Hartford Hall Estate Ltd Ho Sanderson and his wife Margaret were being prosecuted over alleged breaches of planning conditions.

But the company became insolvent and was placed in administration earlier this year. The court case was dropped by Northumberland County Council in September in the wake of the firm’s collapse.

That came after Mr Sanderson suffered severe injuries to his face and neck in a shooting accident near his home in March

With the company unable to finance the work, the residents on the estate face the prospect of having to pay for the completion of unfinished work.

Owners of the 71 properties are contemplating splitting equally between them the cost of finishing the estate’s roads, landscaping and street lighting. They approached the county council for quotes for the work, with a view to the authority’s in-house team possibly doing the job.