Our gardens are unusable swamps: Furious new-build estate residents say their ... trends now

Residents on a newbuild estate have criticised a housing association after their gardens were turned into 'swamps' and left unusable for two years.

Locals living on Wilmot Road, in the Malinslee area of Telford, Shropshire say their back yards have been left a 'muddy quagmire' due to a lack of any drainage.

Jayne Peate, 63, moved into her family home with her two grown up sons and 11-year-old foster child in April 2022 - but has never been able to use her garden.

The foster carer said: 'It is a lovely house with a really beautiful garden but we just can't use it. It is a muddy quagmire.

'We get around two weeks in the summer when it is dry enough to stand on, the rest of the time it is just a mud pit.

'There were billed as family homes with gardens but none of the families in this row are able to use their gardens - they are all the same.

'There is not drainage here and its just soil and clay underneath so the water just sits there.'

Jayne said she's had to pay more than £1,200 for a new patio and fence as well as forking out more than £1,000 on new flooring and carpets.

She added: 'It has made things so much better but I shouldn't have had to pay for all this.

'We had the patio just so we had somewhere in the garden that we could use but I needed new carpets with the dogs traipsing in mug constantly and ruining them.

'And what about the other families on this row? There are people here whose children have to play in the street because their garden is unusable. It is just not acceptable.'