RESIDENTS have criticised builders in charge of a £10.4million extra care and dementia unit in Bingley for only partly replacing a fence amid fears of anti-social behaviour.

The 84,000 sq ft Abbeyfield Society development called The Dales, on the former Bingley hospital site in Fernbank Drive, will provide 47 one and two bedroom extra care apartments, a 30-bed specialist dementia centre and a day care centre.

The work has been carried out by charitable organisation The Abbeyfield Society and Leeds-based Bardsley Construction. Residents on Fernbank Avenue, which runs to the side of the centre’s entrance, have a communal grassed area in front of their homes.

More than 20 years ago they paid for a six-foot-high wooden fence to prevent any potential dog fouling and anti-social behaviour.

While the work was going on at the centre, Abbeyfield were granted permission by the residents to take down the fence so they could build a pavement there.

But the residents are frustrated after only part of the wooden fence was replaced and the rest of the grassland has been left exposed.

Abbeyfield said they will speak to residents about the fence once its building work at the centre has been completed.

Linda Khoury, 65, of Fernbank Avenue, said: “We want the privacy and seclusion that the fence brings put back in place. That’s all we want.

“We allowed the site contractors to temporarily remove the fence as as to enable them to put in a new pavement leading up to their entrance.

“It’s very straightforward for them to fix it. We are extremely disappointed. We are not getting anywhere with them. It’s a huge injustice.

“The old fence we had was dilapidated but it kept people off. They should have replaced it.

“Everyone will be bringing their dogs on it now.”

MORE TOP STORIES

The centre’s opening is targeted for next month subject to formal inspections and registration.

Richard Virr, Abbeyfield’s director of development, said: “The grassed area outside of the houses on Fernbank Avenue is, in part, Abbeyfield land.

“Abbeyfield will be discussing the future of that land with the residents of Fernbank Avenue once the building is complete.

“A review of the renewal of the dilapidated fence that was positioned at the back of the pavement will be part of that exercise.”

This is not the first time the centre has created controversy. Residents in Fernbank Drive were frustrated earlier this month about the disruptive nature of the building work and the “slowness of the work”, adding it should have been finished in June 2016.