A FAMILY is asking its council landlord to dig up its garden, claiming that potentially hazardous glass, nails and other building materials are still surfacing a year after they moved in.

Gary Murphy, who lives at the Poole Housing Partnership property in Wallisdown Road with his partner Zoe and their 14-month-old twins, says he has tried his best to clear the ground himself.

“It’s quite an unsafe garden. Raking it isn’t doing anything – it needs to be cleared so it’s 100 per cent safe. To clear up properly, everything would have to be moved and the garden resurfaced. At the moment we have a garden we can’t use,” he said.

Mr Murphy said he even paid a contractor £200 to remove rubbish from the garden just after the twins were born. “The babies were in hospital because they were born early and I wanted to make it safe.”

PHP spokesman Matt Wilkin said: “We do have a record of Mr Murphy raising an issue with his garden shortly after he moved in last year. We agreed to rake through the soil and make good the garden, which he was happy with.

“Mr Murphy called to raise the same issue last week, almost a year after he moved into his home. The job is a minor maintenance problem, so we would expect him, as an able-bodied resident, to ensure his home and garden is kept in a safe and pleasant condition.”

He added that the tenancy agreement made clear that only complicated maintenance jobs that needed trained workmen were PHP’s responsibility.

“We also feel that as a parent, Mr Murphy has ultimate responsibility in making sure his property is appropriately safe for his young children.”