DEVELOPERS have completed a large housing estate near Callington — but left dozens of children without a safe place to play.

The playground has yet to be started at Lady Beam Court in Kelly Bray, despite all 84 houses being occupied, mainly by families.

Children are forced to play on the narrow road through the estate because the nearest park is a mile away.

Sean Milne lives at the new development, built by Barratt Homes, with his wife and four children: 'Our children are aged from four to 12 and this was supposed to be a full size park catering for all kids from babies to teenagers.

'We bought our house off the plans and moved in 16 months ago. As far as we were concerned the over-riding factor in buying the house was the play park.

'Most people have kids here because the majority of the houses are family houses but there is no-where for them to play except on the road.'

The lack of facilities for children was one of the issues raised at the recently formed Kelly Bray Residents' Association. Developers are usually expected to provide play areas on new estates and these can be made a condition of planning permission, as is the case with the Barratt estate.

Nine-year-old Jessica Kinsman, whose home backs on to the proposed playpark, has written to her county councillor asking when the 'muddy field' is going to be turned into a playground.

Jessica's mother, Suzanne, said the children were told off for playing on the road by some of the residents but they had little choice: 'There is a little bit of grass on the estate which about ten children can fit on but that is it.

'We had a bigger garden in our old house but we did not worry about that when we moved here because we back onto the playpark.

'I thought the children would love it, being able to meet up with all their friends, but all we have at the moment is a huge fence blocking it off, which is the view out of our frontroom window.'

A spokeswoman for Cornwall Council said developers had to provide the public amenity facilities once certain plots on the estate were occupied and the enforcement team would be looking into the matter to see if Barratts had breached its planning conditions or not.

Cornwall and town councillor Andrew Long said enforcement action would be a last resort and he hoped the matter would be resolved by getting everyone round the table.

'As a town council we had concerns about this development as a whole, including too many houses and not enough parking spaces, but it got approved and so we are where we are,' he said. 'These issues are raised time and time again by the relevant parish and town councils and not given the weight they should be when it comes to planning considerations — now we have to deal with the aftermath.'

This is the second Kelly Bray housing estate where developers have not yet completed or sorted out the management of play areas — occupants of the Oakmoor development at Horsewhim Drive have been waiting more than three years to see their playpark adopted. There have been similar problems at the Village Collection in Callington.

Callington town clerk Vernon Anderson said the town council offered to take on the running of the play area at Lady Beam Court for a sum to cover maintenance over the next 20 years. But he said Barratt Homes had refused and told him the company had agreed to enter into management scheme with another firm.

Managing director of Barratt Tim Larner said work had been 'delayed slightly' as Barratt had taken all the steps to ensure the safe use and maintenance of the facilities and also by the adverse weather.

'Work is scheduled to start soon on the new play area at Kelly Bray and we look forward to providing some excellent play facilities for local children,' he said.

LEFT:  Children and parents in front of the field of earth at Lady Beam Court which is yet to be turned into the much-needed play area. Pic by James Bird