FAMILIES moving into new homes in the county face years of living with unfinished roads as developers drag their heels, it has been claimed.

Now a petition has been handed in calling on Teignbrign Council to slash Council Tax bills for people living on roads which have not yet been ‘adopted’.

Roads on new developments remain unadopted by the county council until the development is completed to the local authority’s standards.

But this means some new home buyers facing years with unfinished roads.

They can also miss out on some council services because their street has not been added to the local authority’s map.

Councils are not obliged to collect the bins on unadopted roads, although most do.

The roads will also be left without painted lines, and no traffic orders will be in place.

Cllr Phil Bullivant (Con, Bradley) handed in a petition to a meeting of Teignbridge Council calling for a 25 per cent reduction in Council Tax for households affected by unadopted roads.

He said: ‘Some of these estates have been finished for seven or eight years, and they are still not adopted.’

‘Doing this would be an incentive to get the work done.’

He said there were people who had bought new-build homes in the Newton Abbot area 12 years ago whose roads were still not adopted.

But, he added, they were still paying full Council Tax despite having no guarantee of receiving council services.

He said: ‘The average household will have paid more than £30,000 in Council Tax over that period.’Residents are paying for services they are not receiving, and to my mind that is unjust.’