Furious residents have told how their lives are being blighted by constant vibrations, noise and dust from builders preparing an old landfill site for 165 new homes, with one pensioner complaining: ‘It’s like an earthquake!’
Helen Ross has also raised concerns over health hazards with the once toxic ground being disrupted, and is now demanding developers and experts re-test the soil as ‘a matter of urgency.’
The retired teacher, 74, speaking to MailOnline from her garden which backs onto the site in Glen Parva, Leicestershire, said: ‘I am so enraged. This is ruining my life, my husband’s and all our neighbours. It is hell.
‘The banging and vibrations are horrific and are pretty constant throughout the day.
‘The ground beneath the house shakes. The other day I was in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet minding my own business, and it was really so bad I thought I was going to be swallowed up!
‘It’s like being in an earthquake at times, and I know because I have been in the aftershocks of one many years ago in Tanzania.’
Furious residents have told how their lives are being blighted by constant vibrations, noise and dust from builders in Glen Parva, Leicestershire
The noise from the ‘intrusive’ piling work in Cork Lane is forcing some locals to becoming prisoners in their own homes, and they daren’t even open their windows and doors
Residents Helen Ross, a retired teacher and her husband Mike, a retired physicist engineer, are two of the locals who have been affected
The noise from the ‘intrusive’ piling work in Cork Lane is forcing some locals to becoming prisoners in their own homes, and they daren’t even open their windows and doors.
Developer Vistry Group East Midlands said the controversial project, which involves foundations being driven into the wonky ground by a huge machine, needed to take place before construction work started because the land was ‘very unstable.’
Their much-hated plans were approved on appeal in January and Blaby District Council is now considering a scheme for an additional 26 houses.
Mrs Ross, who has lived in her smart two-storey semi with dormer extension, for 39 years, said: ‘It’s been hell, and that is an understatement.
‘It’s not just the ground shuddering and loud racket but the layer of red dust caking everything from our window sills and roofs to garden sheds and furniture.
‘And It’s the health issues associated with the work being done.
‘We feel we’ve been trapped like prisoners in our own houses, not wanting to open doors and windows in the better weather or go into out lovely gardens.’
The grandma added: ‘Whilst we don’t want the houses behind us, we’re not NIMBY’s, and realise new homes have to be built but there has to be consideration to locals residents, and here the intrusion is off the scale.’
Her husband Mike Ross fumed:’ What’s going on is pretty criminal! It’s b****** awful.
‘No one on our local Blaby District Council wanted this. The project for new homes on old brickworks and a landfill site, more lately used for grazing cattle, was turned down twice.
Developer Vistry Group East Midlands said the controversial project, which involves foundations being driven into the wonky ground by a huge machine, needed to take place before construction work started because the land was ‘very unstable.’
Their much-hated plans were approved on appeal in January and Blaby District Council is now considering a scheme for an additional 26 houses
‘But it finally got though on an appeal to the Planning Inspectorate in the last Tory Government.’
The retired physicist engineer, 79, said: ‘The sound is so loud and very intrusive. You cannot use your gardens, you are prisoners inside.
‘It starts at 8am and finished at 6pm every week day, and we hear, the piling work is going onto Christmas.’
The Ross’ home in Westdale Road, with a narrow public footpath dividing their rear garden fence and the site, has borne the brunt on the brutal diggings.
The invasive movable machine has been located almost entirely behind their back doors and windows.
Mr Ross said: ‘They’ve dug down 50 feet, maybe up to 200 feet in parts, and it is full of builders’ waste and rubble. It is a landfill site.
‘All the neighbours signed a petition, we tried to fight the development, but when it won on appeal we reluctantly had to accept it.
‘Now we have issues with the constant noise, dust and dirt. It’s devastating and everyone’s complaining. Our house is one of the worst affected.
‘We’re trying to get some answers and a solution but no one is listening. The council and developers don’t care.
‘We spoke to the site manger. He was pleasant and we sensed he had a certain amount of sympathy but we think it will not change anything.
‘We held a recent residents meeting and 100 people turned up and many were concerned about health implications as well as the deafening noise and nuisance dust.
His wife told how one of their elderly neighbours suffered from an acute bronchial disease and had been badly affected since the works started in July, causing a ‘large amount of disturbance’ during the following two months.
She also explained that some of the local kids her have autism and ‘with all the noise and disruption they are completely losing the plot.’
Left: Resident Lisa Ellis, 55, described the noise from the building site as ‘awful’. Right: A piling machine at the building site behind homes in Glen Parva, Leicestershire
Mrs Ross urged: ‘We want soil retested as a matter of urgency. Residents with respiratory illnesses and allergies are suffering more and it is down to all the dust they are being exposed to.
‘We could all be exposed to asbestos from that ground and other toxic material. We are desperate, we want something done
‘We want answers but whenever we ask we are getting a zero response. It is infuriating.’
Mrs Ross also claims that trucks are failing to stick to the one-way on site system.
She said: ‘The lorries do as they please and just the other day I was nearly wiped out by one going the wrong way as I was driving home.
‘How much worse can it get after the awful sound? At the start of the week is was thunder storms and we were hoping that dreadful machine would get stuck in the ground!’
The couple are now demanding compensation from the developers for the disruption noise and dust caused which has caused ‘very negative impact on our lives.’
Mrs Ross said: ‘We also want a new eight feet high fence to be installed at the end of our garden to help screen the site.
‘But we doubt this will happen – they won’t even pay for dust-covered cars and windows to be cleaned.’
Neighbour Lisa Ellis, 55, complained: ‘The noise is so awful, you have to hear it to believe it.
‘The piling wok kicks of fat 8.30am and by the time I start work I am already stressed.
‘It’s infuriating. It’s an intrusive, constant, pounding noise which you can’t ignore. It’s absolute hell.’
She added: ‘I live around the corner from Helen and she gets the worst of it – the constant bang, bang, bang. I feel sorry for her.
‘I get a bang and then a reverberating sound echoing out.
‘The orange dust must be a health hazard. The site being developed is an old landfill site and who now what’s buried in there.’
Lisa Ellis, 55, said: ‘The orange dust must be a health hazard. The site being developed is an old landfill site and who now what’s buried in there.’
The scene in Glen Parva, Leicestershire, where residents are having to endure constant noise
Ms Ellis, who lives with partner Alexander Boya and their son Julius, 12, said: ‘We are OK health-wise but some of our neighbours are suffering.
‘They have health issues and the dust has worsened their symptoms. They require testing but no one is offering that.
‘The developers need to liaise with the community but it appears they are in hiding, they just don’t want to know. It is so frustrating.’
Ms Ellis explained: ”When we moved here seven years ago we were well aware of potential development but the council had already turned it down twice,
‘It won on appeal. We can’t stop it, we know that but we are asking for more consideration to the public because so many lives are being impacted but no one cares.
‘My partner works for Blaby District Council, he’s not on the big building projects team but on the domestic planning side.’
Fellow resident Mary Green, a retired payroll clerk said: ‘It’s such an intrusion and the piling machine is drives us all mad.
‘We can hear and feel it all the time.’
Another resident Ben Smith told how he has been left gasping for breath and struggling to work because of the dust and grime
He said: ‘My office is at the back of the garage and the noise is constant, eight hours a day, It’s a horrendous atmosphere trying to talk to people. Even with the door closed.
‘It’s not a nice environment. What are we actually breathing and has anyone actually tested the dust? We want answers on that.’
Andrew Rushton, 67, added: ‘Eight hours a day, the vibrations move along and you can’t have a conversation in your house with the windows open, so they have to be shut.
‘It is an horrendous atmosphere.’
Blaby District Councillor Ande Savage, who lives near the development site, posted on social media: ‘Who in their right mind builds houses on a landfill site, and who is actually going to buy them?
‘Now, we’re left with the aftermath of this crazy decision to grant planning permission. Constant noise from the ongoing piling work, because it’s a landfill, lorries arriving at all hours, dust and dirt everywhere. It’s unbearable!’
Developers Vistry said the work was being carried out in accordance with planning permission agreed with the council.
A company spokesperson confirmed that the firm was taking ‘all necessary precautions’ during the early groundworks and said the readings for both ‘vibration and noise are compliant with the approved British Standards.’
They added: ‘We have also been operating regular dust dampening on site to mitigate against dust as well as employing road sweepers to clean the local roads and jet washing lorry wheels before they exit onto the public highway.’
Blaby District Council said: ‘The piling method statement and construction management plan were approved at the application stage which included measures to mitigate the noise and dust.
‘Mitigation measures include wheel-wash facilities, road sweeping, dampening down via a water bowser as well as mist cannons on site.’
It added: ‘Noise levels for construction sites are governed by national guidelines. The noise levels at Cork Lane are compliant.’
