A widowed pensioner is "furious" after a water company has still not removed piles of rubbish and barriers from his front garden after six months."

John Masiak, 75, said he has been living with the pile of rubbish ever since Yorkshire Water came to work on the street's water main which is located on his property in November 2024.

It includes damage to his driveway, 12 bright yellow barriers, 10 orange cones, three road signs, discarded rubbish, and abandoned equipment.

Yorkshire Water apologised for the delay in sorting out the mess and said it would deal with it as a "matter of urgency"."

John of 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, finding the front of his property undeveloped.

He lives alone after his partner Jackie Masiak died of cancer aged 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 informed that Yorkshire Water would be visiting his property to reroute the water mains on November 14, 2024.

He was told it would take four days to complete yet he has since revealed the crews left without cleaning up.

Between then and February 2025 John says he and some of his neighbours were left unable to access their driveways despite making multiple complaints to Yorkshire Water.

He said crews from Yorkshire Water visited the property again on February 21 where they removed some rubble but the barriers were amongst the rubbish which remained.

Since then John says he made repeated requests to Yorkshire Water for crews to visit and remove it

He said: "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 spokesperson for Yorkshire Water said: "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 pledged that builders would be on site on May 15 to remove any barriers left on John's property.