A DEVELOPER has pledged to clean up an estate after complaints from residents.

A team from Barratts will be sent in today to tidy the Regent's Park development, in Colburn, near Catterick Garrison.

Following intervention by The Northern Echo, a spokesman for the firm apologised to residents. She said efforts would be made to maintain the estate in future.

Problems have arisen because Richmondshire District Council has declined to adopt the estate and take over street cleaning and maintenance of play areas.

Julie Howell-Walmsley, the council's legal officer, said: "At the moment we are not in a position to adopt the public open spaces within the estate, as the developer hasn't kept them up to an adoptable standard.

"The onus is on the developer to bring the open spaces up to this standard and to put forward an acceptable scheme for their long-term maintenance.

"Unfortunately, at present, the developer's solicitors are not co-operating fully with our legal advisers in order to achieve the transfer of the land, despite our actively requiring them to do so through regular correspondence over the past 18 months."

But when contacted by The Northern Echo yesterday, a spokesman for Barratts apologised, adding: "As a gesture of goodwill we will maintain the area. A team will go in and we will keep that going until it can be adopted."

The spokesman said the firm had not deliberately let the estate become untidy.

Officers at Richmondshire District Council welcomed the gesture.

Problems on the estate include litter, poor maintenance of play equipment and dog fouling, said Melva Steckles, of Brough with St Giles Parish Council.

"When things go wrong for the residents, we as a parish council can't really help them because the estate has not been adopted by the district council," she said.

The first 130 homes were built on the development five years ago. Work has started on another 50 houses and a planning application has been submitted for a further 69.

Roads on the Regent's Park estate were formally adopted by North Yorkshire County Council in January last year.