Furious homeowners blast housing firm over ‘Photoshopped’ brochure

Furious homeowners say house firm Photoshopped their unfinished potholed roads in brochure advertising new homes on development next doorWaterside Village locals in St Helens claim Morris Homes has forgotten themThe 500-house estate was built ten years ago but roads left unfinishedNow a Morris brochure shows immaculate – photoshopped – tarmacDavid Lyons, 34, said one person had fallen down an uncovered manhole By Joel Adams For Mailonline Published: 08:24 EDT, 7 October 2019 | Updated: 12:28 EDT, 7 October 2019 Homeowners living on what should be a picture-perfect new build estate are furious with a housing developer’s brochure in which 10-year-old potholes have been phtoshopped out.Residents of Waterside Village in St Helens claim they have been forgotten about by Morris Homes, who built almost 500 houses before leaving the site without tarmacing the streets.One man, David Lyons, said the roads on the site have been broken, muddied and abandoned by the construction workers – who were tasked with completing them.The 34-year-old told the Liverpool Echo that people in the area are even expected to pay between £200 and £500 a year to Morris Homes as a service charge which goes towards the ‘upkeep’ of the development.He said: ‘They finished building on the site earlier this year and numerous times we have been told that they will be completing the roads but they haven’t done it yet.’ David Lyons said the developers finished the estate but never properly tramaced the roads Mr Lyons explained that Morris Homes began building Waterside Village in 2008 before his wife bought a home there in 2009.After they married and had two children together, the couple moved to another home on the development.He said: ‘We were told that the roads would be completed when all the houses were built, but they kept adding to them.’Because of the work vehicles, the roads are full of pot holes and the kerbs are extremely high.’People around here have suffered damage to their cars and one neighbour even fell down a manhole that wasn’t properly covered. Residents are furious at this Morris Home brochure which shows photoshopped roads ‘We are paying hundreds of pounds for them to ‘cut the grass’ and look after the estate but they refuse to do the one thing we have asked for.’But hospital worker David said his neighbours became infuriated when Morris Homes purchased land next to their estate to develop a second phase of Waterside Village.He said: ‘Our estate was clearly so popular that they decided to build another just like it.’So far they have built about 15 homes so we knew they weren’t going to be bothered about sorting out roads. Residents have said Morris workers never completed the roads’The most ridiculous thing they have done though, was use a picture of our estate for their new brochure.’It shows a row of houses from one of the streets, but they have photoshopped tidy, clean, tarmac roads onto the picture.’That just proves that they are aware of the issue and have decided to cover it up with some clever computer work rather than just fixing the problem.’Waterside Village is a collection of two, three and four bedroom homes that start from around £140,000 in price.According to the Morris Homes website, Waterside Village ‘will blend timeless character with high specification and modern design’ but the residents disagree with how they have been treated.David added: ‘We were sold a dream and unfortunately, we are still waiting for that to become a reality.’A Morris Homes spokeswoman said the company was ‘liaising with the Local Authority with a view to appointing contractors over the next few weeks’.She added: ‘We have only recently finished this phase of the development and as such it would have been premature to surface the main carriageway due to the ongoing damage caused by construction traffic. Roads were surfaced and finished in individual cul de sacs as we progressed.’She said the service charges were paid to a management company not to Morris but that roads would be upkept by the local authority.
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