‘No shops, no schools’: homes in England built without basic amenities | Planning policy

Thousands of homes across England are being built without urgently needed community infrastructure, say councillors and campaigners, leaving families without access to playgrounds, schools, shops, and even doctors.

Even where provision is built, it can take years to come into use, the Guardian has been told.

Just outside the village of Cressing, in Essex, sits the Paddocks, a development of 225 new homes with a fenced-off playground, surrounded with signs warning “keep out” and “children are not allowed to play on this site”.

“It’s been three years since families moved in,” saysKevin Dale, a local campaigner. “And houses overlook an unfinished playground.” There are no shops, he reports, no nursery, and the recently planted trees have died.

At Westvale Park in Surrey,…