VILLAGERS have said a housing developer should never have got permission to build a second estate in South Oxfordshire after the way it managed a development up the road.

Wantage MP Ed Vaizey said it was ‘depressing’ that Linden Homes was developing 60 homes at Meadow View in Cholsey near Wallingford.

Linden was slated this month over a ‘catalogue of disasters’ at nearby 350-home estate Cholsey Meadows.

Residents reported that Linden regularly failed to deal with complaints or show up to meetings, did not keep promises about community facilities, and claimed not to be responsible for issues after two years.

Speaking about the ongoing construction at Meadow View – a development of two-to-four-bedroom homes – Mr Vaizey said: “Linden have not covered themselves in glory at Cholsey Meadows. They refused to help me get fast broadband to residents and I have since had numerous complaints about the quality of workmanship.

“It’s very depressing that they continue to build in my constituency.”

One Cholsey resident said: “They haven’t finished Cholsey Meadows: they shouldn’t have been allowed to build another estate in the village if they hadn’t completed.

“That is the opinion of lots of people. There is a lot of outstanding work.”

Lizzie Irving, director of the Cholsey Meadows Management Company set up to manage and maintain the development, agreed that Linden should not have been given permission to develop Meadow View.

She said: “They need to be held more accountable to ensure that they complete jobs towards the end of the build programme to the standard and quality expected and that they fully complete jobs they agreed to in the planning stages. Ideally (they should) have a presence after completion, to sort out outstanding issues.

“Their customer service is (mainly) slow or non-existent (and) worse as the development nears completion.”

She added that, as of earlier this month, she had received ‘no communication from Linden, or any indication of planning to complete their original commitments’.

Linden claims to ‘pride itself on values of excellence, passion, collaboration and integrity - demonstrating strong ethical standards'.

On its website, the company say that new residents will have ‘everyday convenience stores, primary schools, local pubs and a number of social groups/ clubs for both adults and children’ – the sort of marketing that residents at Cholsey Meadows suggest was not fulfilled.

A Linden spokesperson said: “We are disappointed by this feedback and are looking into the issues that have been raised at our previous development.

“At Meadow View, we have welcomed our first residents. We will be investing £89,000 into the local community through contributing towards recycling, bus services and street naming.

“The first phase will provide 60 homes (24 will be affordable). We are delighted to have opened our show home in spring and anticipate the first phase of homes to be completed in early 2020.”

Cholsey Parish Council declined to comment.