Play area where the children cannot play

It has now been nicknamed Bramley Brown by residents, who are angry that the play area they were promised when they bought their houses up to two years ago, is still not finished.

It was due to be finished a year ago but work has ground to a halt and residents say that nothing has happened on site for three months.

Local mother Kiri Brown said: "I've got three children. There are a lot of children on the estate and none of them can use the park. It's ridiculous.

"It looks all finished and once the district council have approved the work they will hand it over to the parish council for it to be opened.

"It's all a bit political, really. It's already been closed over the Easter holidays and at this rate it will be closed for the summer, too."

Arun District Council's tree and landscape manager, Joe Russell-Wells said: "Work is not yet completed on site. The landscaping is due to be finished by the developers, Blaze Landscaping, soon.

"We had asked the developers to adopt the play areas before the landscaping was finished but they have not done that.

"I have heard that they are due to put out a leaflet to all residents explaining their time-scale for the work to be completed.

"The play areas also have to be inspected and approved by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents before we can take it on."

Angmering parish councillor Peter Downey said he was frustrated at the delays to the work and the impact that it has had on people in the community and added that the delays have also held up the parish council's plans to build a skate park on part of the land near the A259.

He said: "The work should have been finished by October last year, but it's still not done.

"There has been a contractual problem between the developers and the landscapers.

"I have been told that this has now been agreed and work should start again soon, but then I was told in February that work would be finished by Easter and it wasn't.

"It is planned, subject to a few conditions, that the parish council will take over the maintenance of the park and green area and we plan to build a 50,000 skate park and BMX track on part of the site.

"We're waiting for the land to be passed over to us so that we can get on because we can't get any funding until we own the land."

Another Bramley Green resident, Gary Wicks, said: "My house is directly on the green and instead of looking out of my window at trees in blossom and kids running around enjoying themselves, all I see is a mess.

"Some of the kids have broken down the fencing to get into the park and it's now full of gaps and sharp edges, which are very dangerous.

"There are other problems, too. There are dog waste bins which haven't been emptied because the land is not the council's responsibility yet. They are full and there are bags of it lying around the bins.

"We also had a dumped vehicle sitting on the green for nearly three months before it was taken away.

"We've named it Bramley Brown. The amount of disruption here from the beginning has been farcical."