Residents living in some of the region’s most environmentally-friendly homes say their lives are being blighted by severe drainage problems which started only months after they moved in.

The Pavilion Gardens scheme, Bradford Council’s first housing project in 30 years, included the first homes in Yorkshire to meet the highest level of the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes when it opened a year ago.

The building company behind the 45-home development in West Bowling, Bradford, was also awarded a sustainability accolade at last year’s Yorkshire and Humber Construction Best Practice awards.

But Gary Gartland, 38, who lives in one of the homes with his wife and five children, said he contacted Yorkshire Housing, which manages the scheme, six months ago after their garden started becoming badly waterlogged with rain water and surface run-off from a hill behind the house.

He said a rainwater store used as part of the house’s heating system, and to provide water for the garden and toilets, had been isolated as it now posed a contamination risk.

He said: “There’s no drainage on the back of the house. The rainwater is coming off the hill and going into the garden. I thought we’d be sorted with a nice house, beautiful garden, but they weren’t as they were made out to be. With new houses you expect to have things go wrong but not like this.

“I can’t bring friends and relatives out here. My kids can’t bring their friends into the garden to play. Every time it rains it comes closer to the back door. The garden is 3 to 4ins deep in sludge. The whole house stinks.”

Neighbour Nicole Denbigh, 21, said her garden was also several inches deep in water.

She said: “It’s disgraceful the amount of time it’s taking to sort it out. You don’t expect to have lots of trouble when you move into a new home, you expect everything to settle down nicely.”

Michelle Cooke, Yorkshire Housing’s neighbourhood services manager for Bradford, said: “We regret that some of our customers in Pavilion Gardens have been inconvenienced by a drainage problem on land behind their homes. We have been working with Bradford Council and the building contractor to rectify the problem.

“The issue became apparent during the ‘defects period’ for the homes.

“Working with these partner organisations and our customers has been a priority and will continue to be until a resolution is found.”