A widowed pensioner has expressed his fury as a water company has yet to remove heaps of rubbish and barriers from his front garden after six months. John Masiak, 75, revealed he has been living with the pile of rubbish since Yorkshire Water began work on the street’s water main, located on his property, in November 2024.
The mess includes damage to his driveway, 12 glaring yellow barriers, 10 orange cones, three road signs, discarded rubbish, and abandoned equipment. Yorkshire Water has apologised for the delay in clearing up the mess and assured it would address it as a “matter of urgency.” John, from Acomb, York, in Yorkshire, said: “All they have to do is send one van to remove it, but I just get the feeling that they’re not bothered.
“It’s just total mismanagement.” John moved into his newly built house in 2021, only to find the front of his property undeveloped. He lives alone following the death of his partner Jackie Masiak, who succumbed to cancer at the age of 70 in January 2020.
He said: “When I moved in I was expecting the land to the front of my property to be developed but when I asked, they said that it was mine and the council said that I could do with it as I pleased. I planned to block pave over it and gave the company the opportunity to divert the water system away from my house.
“I received no response so I proceeded with the work on it but I knew the flush main was on my property meaning it may need to be dug up – that was alright as long as they repaved it afterwards.” John was notified that Yorkshire Water would be arriving at his property on November 14, 2024, to reroute the water mains, a job expected to take four days. However, he claims the crew left without tidying up.
Between then and February 2025, John alleges that he and some of his neighbours were unable to access their driveways, despite lodging multiple complaints with Yorkshire Water. On February 21, Yorkshire Water crews revisited the property, removing some rubble but leaving behind barriers amidst the remaining rubbish. John claims to have made repeated requests to Yorkshire Water for the removal of the barriers.
He stated: “An inspector visited once on March 12, but Yorkshire Water representatives confirmed that no removal was scheduled when I contacted them again on March 31. It seems it is legal for them to just dump stuff on my property and not do anything about it. Normal people couldn’t just do that. Someone suggested I should bill them for the time it’s been on my property but why should I have to do that. All of my drive and pathway was pristine too I don’t know why have they dug it up and added holes and half blocks.”
A Yorkshire Water spokesperson responded: “We have instructed our new contract partners, Avove, to look at this as a matter of urgency. They will check to see if there are any outstanding repairs, and if so, are aiming to complete by the end of the week (16/05/2025). We accept that this work has not been carried out to our usual standard, we would like to thank residents for their patience and apologise for the delay.”
The water company also assured that builders would be on site on May 15 to clear any obstructions left on John’s property.
