Work on a Shropshire housing development, which was started nearly five years ago, has still not been completed.
The development in St Julian’s Friars, Shrewsbury, has been hit by delays after the initial building firm Thornton Baker Homes was unable to complete more than a third of the 91-home estate.
Fletcher Homes stepped in to build the remaining 66 homes in 2006 but said today it could not give an estimate on its completion.
Now nearby hotels claim the building work is having an affect on their tourist trade. Abbots Meade Hotel owner Barry Bailey said the construction, which began in 2003, was getting beyond a joke.
He said: “Every year I have the same people come and stay and every year they are appalled the work has not been finished yet.
“We have had a building site round us for four and a half years and it is affecting our business.
“Benbow Quay was built in 18 months. This project has taken years and is still not getting done. It was four years ago last December and it is just getting too much now.
“I have tried councillors but I don’t know if anything can be done. We have been here 14 years and we have the same people coming back year after year, especially for the Shrewsbury Flower Show.
“This is the fifth year I have to make some excuse to the people who come and stay about why work is still ongoing.
“They have got scaffolding all along my garden. I gave them permission to put it there so they could get on with it but it is not being finished.”
Ceri Richards, owner of the Sandford House hotel in St Julian Friars, said: “I think it’s a bit on the slow side. The outlook is poor when people come and stay at the hotel. It will be much better when it is all tidied up.”
A spokeswoman for Fletcher Homes said it was planning to put some houses on the market in the coming weeks but could not give say when it would be completed.
She said: “We are building 66 plots and they are in construction at the moment.”
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