Furious residents today vowed to blockade their street until speeding trucks stop using it as a short cut to a building site.

Parents are concerned that large trucks carrying building materials to the site in Apperley Bridge, Bradford, are a serious danger to children playing in Overland Crescent during the school summer holidays.

The cul-de-sac is being used as an access point by David Wilson Homes to a site on which it has planning permission to build 18 new homes.

Police have had to stop angry parents parking their cars across the street, preventing trucks from entering the site and obstructing the building work.

About 20 children who regularly play on the road have also protested against the passing lorries by designing a giant banner with the words "Please Wait" painted across it.

Today residents said they accepted that the building work had to take place, but wanted the developers to wait until after the summer break.

They called on David Wilson Homes to put the building work back or find another access point to the site. And the residents said they would continue blocking the street until their demands were met.

But the building firm said the quicker the work started, the quicker it would be finished.

Resident Suzanne Spencer, whose six-year-old daughter plays on the street with her friends, said: "There's no reason why they couldn't have started the work at the end of the six-week holidays.

"There really is nowhere else for the children on the road to play together. They just want to enjoy themselves.

"We are going to continue campaigning for their sakes."

Resident Julie Marsden, whose two young children also play on the quiet cul-de-sac, said: "We're all devastated that they've started the work when they have.

"We've got no objections to them building - just not through the six-week holidays when all the children play out. It poses a danger to their safety with all the trucks coming down here.

"We will continue to cause them a lot of disruption for the whole of the holidays."

A spokesman for David Wilson Homes said: "Residents have been preventing David Wilson Homes' vehicles from gaining access to the site off Overland Crescent and police were called to deal with this.

"This is land which the company owns and on which we also have full planning consent to develop 18 new homes.

"We appreciate the comments made by residents about the timing of the work and apologise for any inconvenience caused. But there is never an ideal time to undertake such work and our priority is to ensure there is a minimum level of disruption to all those living in the area.

"Starting essential work on the highway and groundworks in the summer months will enable us to move ahead faster, to complete the work as quickly as possible.

"David Wilson Homes met the Apperley Bridge Residents Association during the planning stage. They not only supported this scheme, but were also keen that work should commence on it immediately."

Councillor Ann Ozolins (Lib Dem, Idle) said most residents she had spoken to supported the housing development.

"This news is an absolute shock to me. All residents have said to me is that the majority were for the planning application," she said.

"As far as I'm aware there is no other access to the site."

A police spokesman confirmed that officers attended Overland Crescent on Monday afternoon to tell the owners of two vehicles to move them from the entrance to the cul-de-sac, which they did.