Wellingborough construction traffic causing sleepless nights for residents

Lora Lawman lives on the Gleneagles estate, adjacent to the A509 Niort Way, over the road from the Glenvale Park construction site known as Wellingborough North.

She says she has been kept awake by lorries reversing at night and early in the morning, has been disturbed by engines left running for hours and has witnessed construction vehicles using the residential streets roads to unload heavy plant equipment.

She said: "I noticed it had got worse about two weeks plus ago when a low loader parked on Barnwell Road.

"I was really upset because it started being unloaded just as the children were coming out of school. Residents can't be expected to have huge plant being unloaded in their roads.

"Vans have been parking on the grass verge - as residents we're asked to not park on the grass.

"The other day I could hear this noise all the time and I could see this huge lorry and huge low loader. The humming noise was continuous.

"One lorry parked up and the engine was running from about 4pm until 10.30pm. He was asleep in the cab and at 6.30am he switched the engine on again.

"Again this morning, I saw this van near Gleneagles Drive and Barnwell Road which went to park on the verge. They are using it as a car park for their own convenience.

"The people who live directly opposite the site on Ashton Grove are being hugely affected. One woman said on the local Facebook group it was 'doing her head in'."

Mrs Lawman says it is not the first time residents have had cause for complaint about the building site which is approximately 500m from her home .

She added: "Due to the parking, pollution and noise we previously complained because they were working on Sundays and bank holidays and on one Friday night they were working until 1am to 2am in the morning."

A spokesman for Northamptonshire County Council said: "Unless there are formal parking restrictions in place (e.g. yellow lines) generally motorists are not committing an offence by parking and this includes on footways and on verges.

"The only exceptions are where traffic laws are being contravened which includes offences such as obstruction of the highway (this also includes footways), which the police have powers to enforce.

"There are also regulations about HGVs and where they park, which again is something the police would need to investigate to see if enforcement action can be taken."

John Donaghy, commercial director for contractors Whitemountain, said there was an issue with the deliveries of the concrete blocks yesterday and apologised to residents for any negative impact the incident may have caused.

He said: "The blocks form a retaining wall on Gleneagles Drive and have to be placed in the correct sequence.

"Unfortunately the block manufacturer sent the loads in the wrong sequence and one of the lorries could not discharge it’s load as planned yesterday.

"The lorry left the site and on his own accord decided to park in the residential area overnight. This action was not sanctioned by Whitemountain, nor were site management aware of it.

"Procedures have been put in place at site level to avoid such incidents in the future.

"Due to the nature of the works it is impossible to execute them without some impact to the surrounding areas, however I can assure you that Whitemountain are committed to completing this scheme with as minimal disruption as possible to local residents."