Marown Commissioners say they are not responsible for delays that led to first-time buyers being unable to move into the new homes before Christmas.

But the developer behind the new estate in Crosby insist they did everything they could to try to get the families in before Christmas.

Seven families say they have been left in limbo following a delay in Marown Commissioners adopting ’bat-friendly’ street lighting on Crosby Meadows.

All homes on the estate were completed by the beginning of October.

On November 20, directors of the developer JM Project Management approached Marown Commissioners asking for the street lights to be adopted.

The adoption of the street lights was approved by the local authority at its meeting on December 18, taking effect from December 23 - too late for the first-time buyers to move in before Christmas.

Commissioners’ clerk Ian Maule denied that the authority had ever rejected the idea of adopting the lights.

But he said the Commissioners had been concerned that the proposed lanterns didn’t comply with the planning approval, with the risk that retrospective consent might be required.

Mr Maule said the meeting on December 18 was the first opportunity to approve the scheme when all the information and assurances from planners and Manx Utilities were to hand.

He said an article in last week’s Examiner ’unfairly paints the Commissioners as the villain when they have been acutely aware that purchasers will wish to complete’.

But responding to the Commissioners’ claim that they had approved the scheme at the first opportunity, John Lovelady co-director of JM Project Management said: ’That’s 100% not the case.’

He accepted the developers had not approached the Commissioners earlier - but had done so on November 20 as soon as they found out that the Attorney General’s chambers required the street lights to be adopted as a condition of the first-time buyers’ scheme.

Mr Lovelady said he had spoken to Commissioners’ chairman Alison Lynch asking for a special meeting to be called to consider the item.

Mr Lovelady said: ’I told her it was important we think of the seven families who want to spend Christmas in their new homes.’

That extra meeting was called for December 11 but no decision could be made as the Commissioners said they did not have sufficient detail as they had no response from the planning office and Manx Utilities.

Mr Lovelady said if the local authority had given approval on December 11, the families would have been able to move in for Christmas.

He said the Commissioners had been opposed to the development from the outset and likened it to ’trench warfare’. ’We are not blameless, we’ve made mistakes,’ he said.