Action to reduce dust and noise from West Bromwich housing site after complaints
Council investigators say residents living near a West Bromwich housing construction site should be getting fewer problems with dust after the developer installed lorry wheel-washing equipment.
Householders living near the 223-home Millfields development, off Hall Green Road, in Stone Cross, claimed their lives were being made a misery due to noisy vehicles, mud and vibration from the site.
Sandwell Council said its environmental health team held talks with developer Countryside Properties UK and has visited nearby residents to discuss the issues.
The council said: "They [Countryside] will be doing more proactively. They will be doing the wheel washing on site before the vehicles go on the carriageway which will reduce the issues with mud and dust. This should be improved now."
The move follows complaints from excising Hall Green Road residents who had accused Countryside of failing to fulfilling its obligations to the community to stop the mess.
They claimed site vehicles were dragging mud along the road instead of cleaning it up, resulting in pedestrians stepping in the muck and motorists driving through it.
Campaigner Don Walters said: "The dried mud, creates dust on the road, on cars and neighbouring properties. The machine sweepers, which are constantly travelling up and down the street, are actually causing noise disturbance, particularly for those residents with chronic health problems."
A Countryside Properties UK statement read: "We take the matter of controlling dust and vibration of all of its sites very seriously. At our Millfields project, all site operations have been carried out in strict adherence to the documentation that has been approved by the relevant authorities, including the Environment Agency and the local council’s planning and environmental health officers.
"To help ensure we stay well within the allowable tolerances, we have deployed dust and vibration monitoring equipment on this site and have street cleaning machinery in operation to reduce dust and mud on the local roads.”
When completed the new estate will comprise a mixture of two, three and four-bedroom homes for sale on the open market and for rent.
The land was a sand and gravel quarry during the 1950s before being used as landfill for industrial waste. It was previously owned by Christ Church Limited and the council. However, Christ Church sold its plot.
