BASILDON’S council leader has demanded a housing association acts now and cleans up a residential estate.

Gavin Callaghan, Labour leader at the council, has condemned Clarion Housing Group for “failing its residents” living on the 3/4 estate in Vange.

He posted a copy of the letter he has sent on Facebook – and pictures of piles of rubbish.

He said in a post: “It’s horrific how they are leaving people to live and not putting in the investment to the estate that is needed. I’m sick of residents being treated like second class citizens by them.”

He wrote to Clare Miller, chief executive of the housing group, urging her to take action to clean up the estate.

He said in the letter: “I regret to have to say that I was horrified by the amount of rubbish, household waste and general untidiness I found on the estate.

“I find this totally unacceptable and well below the standards the residents there deserve.

“I have attached photos to this letter that demonstrate what I am talking about.

“As you will see for yourself, the refuse collection procedures you have in place are not fit for purpose.

“There is an absence of Clarion presence on the estate, so residents’ issues and concerns are not being dealt with efficiently, and we have seen an escalation in homes that are not meeting decent homes standards.”

Mr Callaghan also asked the chief executive to join him on a walk around the estate in the letter.

He added that he believes the chief executive would agree the environment the residents are living in is unacceptable.

The council leader wrote: “I also need assurances that you will be undertaking immediate work to ensure improved standards will be achieved and maintained.”

A Clarion Housing Group spokesman said: “We are committed to keeping our estates safe and tidy.

“We have moved the bin stores serving our properties at the estate to enhance fire safety.

“The new location is more accessible to other properties and so they have unfortunately been used by more people than they are provided for.

“To mitigate this we have asked our contractor to clear rubbish across the estate on a Thursday, meaning the bin area is clear for collection day on Friday.

“We have also asked our grounds maintenance contractor to do an additional clear up as part of their fortnightly attendance.

“We are very happy to meet with members and in fact have a meeting arranged with our neighbourhood team and a councillor today – August 15.

“We have a significant planned investment programme scheduled over the next 12 to 18 months, however we are not aware of any of our homes on the estate that currently fail to meet the decent homes standard.”