ELECTION candidates have vowed to make sure new developments in York are “adopted” by the council to improve life for residents.

Joe Watt, Stuart Rawlings and Ben Carty, who are standing for the Conservatives in the Skelton, Rawcliffe and Clifton Without ward, want to speed up the process which paves the way for services such as litter collection and repairs to street lighting.

They say people moving into new developments must sometimes wait more than five years for the council to take responsibility for these issues, and have promised “early action” if they are elected this week.

“The longer adoption takes, the more facilities deteriorate, making bringing them up to standard even harder,” said Mr Watt.

“We will aim to introduce a requirement for the council to pursue proactively enforcement action whenever adoption has not been completed after a reasonable period of time. Ultimately, this would require the council to bring facilities up to standard where needed and charge the costs to the developers.

“The aim is to ensure council tax-paying residents get the basic service to which they are entitled.”