RESIDENTS of an upmarket Northumberland housing estate are furious after council officials agreed to postpone a decision on controversial plans to build more homes there.

Dozens of people living on the exclusive 71-home Hartford Hall estate near Bedlington are fighting the bid to build 23 more houses on the Low Meadow area.

Developer Maymask claims the scheme will generate the funds needed to complete unfinished work on the estate’s roads, street lighting, car parking landscaping and children’s play area.

However, the Hartford Hall residents’ association has its own plans to complete the infrastructure work without the need to build more homes to pay for it.

Yesterday the county council’s agreement to delay a decision on the Maymask plan was branded “appalling” by residents, who say it is a stalling tactic to buy more time for a non-viable scheme.

The planning application was due to go before councillors next week – with officers recommending that it should be refused.

They say there is a risk that the 23-home development might not be able to deliver all of the unfinished work on the estate. This means allowing building in the green belt which cannot be justified as “exceptional circumstances”.

The application has been withdrawn from the agenda for next week’s planning committee at the request of the applicants, and it will be February or March at the earliest before it comes back for a decision.

Yesterday Christine Purdon, secretary of the Hartford Hall residents’ association, said: “This further delay is appalling because the developer has had the option to buy the estate for 18 months and is still unable to come up with a viable scheme.

“The only people who can finish the outstanding work are the residents, because we have invested our time and money in the estate.

“We want to see it finished, we have a perfectly viable plan and we don’t need another 23 houses to be built to achieve that.”

Laurena Cunliffe, who lives on the estate with her husband Bill, said: “This company has not been able to put a viable application together and the feeling here is that this latest delay means they are just waiting for a possible change in Government policy on building in the green belt.

“It is just a stalling tactic and we feel we are being unjustly treated.

“As residents we are fed up with the uncertainty and we are living in such a mess with inadequate roads and street lighting and the Low Meadow looking like a wasteland. The council should just make a decision.”

Dan Miller, who drew up the planning application for Maymask, said it was an ongoing process. “In this particular case there are some further points that are required in order to make the application more robust, which were not requested in the first instance.

“We asked for a deferral in order to do a touch more work on some of the points, including looking to provide more details of the costs of the outstanding work.”

A council spokeswoman said: “The developer asked for the application to be withdrawn from next week’s meeting with the intention of providing more information.

“This is quite common practice and, depending on when that new information is supplied, the application could be back on the agenda in February or March.”

The infrastructure was left unfinished following the original development of the estate more than six years ago.