Parents “scared” about the danger to their children from a cracked wall behind their homes are calling upon the council to act.
The neighbours in Harold Court Road, Harold Wood, claim the brickwork has been left weakened by a developer that is refusing to abide by a condition listed in its planning application.
But establishing who is carrying out the work and contacting them has proved difficult.
The development, which is located to the back of their gardens, involves the demolition of a series of garages, to be replaced with four homes.
It was initially rejected by Havering Council, before being approved on appeal in September last year.
As part of the approval, conditions including new boundary walls, to be built within one month of the garages being demolished, were included.
However, with the garages now demolished and work currently taking place, visible cracks are appearing in an existing wall.
Several families with gardens next to the wall have young children and are worried it might fall on them.
Havering Council had issued a breach of condition notice to the developer on September 29, though this related to work taking place outside the allotted hours, and beginning before a construction method statement had been submitted.
One resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said part of the problem is a lack of ownership over who is meant to be managing the wall.
He said he and other residents had been going back-and-forth between the council and the site manager, with a lack of action meaning “now we have a whole issue of residents scared of sending their kids down to their gardens”.
He added the uncertainty was causing a lot of “desperation” in the community.
Jim Singer is the site manager at Excel Management with whom the residents have been liaising. When contacted by the Recorder, he said there were assurances that throughout the build the firm would be inspecting the wall and it would leave it in a safe and sound condition once work was completed.
But after an initial contact about the wall, the Recorder has been unable to contact Mr Singer.
Most recently, the resident said he attended a call with a council officer, along with another resident and Cllr Darren Wise, to discuss the issue.
However, he described the meeting as “disappointing”, with little progress made.
Cllr Wise, an East Havering Residents' Group ward councillor, added the inability to find a solution so far has been “so frustrating”.
“Obviously residents have got concerns about this,” he said. “They just want answers.”
Since the plans were approved, the applicant, Harold Court Ltd, has sold the plot to another developer.
While this is believed to be Billett Developments, the Recorder has been unable to confirm this or get in touch with the company.
Havering Council has been approached several times for comment.
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