A NUMBER of Launceston residents have raised concerns construction work on a new housing development has resulted in an increase in traffic.

Some even staged a short protest on Thursday, July 4 against the possible danger posed by the new lorries.

The development, at Upper Chapel, was passed after Hallam Land developers successfully appealed the initial planning decision when Cornwall Council planners turned it down.

Launceston Town Council also raised objection to the plans.

According to the town’s mayor, Cllr David Gordon, the issues that have caused distress among the residents are ‘the very reason the town council rejected the application.’

Cllr Gordon explained: “The issues at present are the number of HGV lorries that are using St John’s Road, Moorland Road and Upper Chapel to remove large quantities of top soil from the site.

“Residents of these areas would prefer the developer to use the top road as the route to remove the soil from site as it would not involve HGV traffic passing St Catherine’s School several times a day.”

Other issues have been the amount of dust that is being created by the work involved and has been covering parked cars close to the site.

Cllr Gordon believes this will only get worse, and added: “In the few weeks since the development has commenced work on site and this in my opinion will only increase as time goes on.”

Launceston Town Council’s planning committee raised objection to the application during the consultation stage on the premise of knowing the access and egress issues.

Cllr Gordon continued: “Launceston Town Council Planning Committee rejected this application knowing that the access and egress issues will have a damaging affect on local residents in the Upper Chapel area, however being realistic we have to accept that this unwanted development is happening, what we must ensure now is that the disruption to the Upper Chapel area and wider community is kept to an absolute minimum.”

According to Mary Tucker, a resident of Upper Chapel, who also took part in the protest last week, the lorries were no longer accessing the site from the ‘dangerous’ areas, but she fears that they could soon return.

She said: “For me it’s not about the work being done or the houses being built that’s the part and parcel of life.

“But what does concern me is the manner of which they have operated, it feels like a disaster just waiting to happen if they return.”

Despite not living as close to the site as some others, she has still had to endure the difficulties of the increased traffic into the road.

She said: “There has been a breakdown in communication since Cornwall Council lost the case. This isn’t a ‘not in my back yard’ situation, for me it is the fact we weren’t informed.”

Mary described an incident where she followed a loaded lorry from the site, which used the pavement the entire way, to make room for the oncoming traffic to flow.

She added: “What if there was a child out on the pavement or a young family with a pushchair, where would they go? It really was just an accident waiting to happen.”

For now, builders are no longer needing to load top soil from that particular site entrance, but work at the site is set to carry on.

Barratt Homes are completing the build and are already advertising the homes on their website.

Huw Llewellyn, managing director of Barratt Homes Exeter, said: “All housebuilders have to direct site traffic along a specific route set by the local council when building new homes. The fact that ours passes a school and other services has been a concern for us from the outset and we’ve been working with the council to see if it’s possible to make changes to our route. We hope this will be agreed soon.

“We’re sorry to hear of dust issues near the site. It’s something we’ve been working hard to address, using dust suppression techniques and road sweeps, plus monitoring levels very closely.

“The long period of hot, dry weather we’ve had recently has made controlling dust more of a challenge for all developers.”

A spokesperson for Cornwall Council said: “The council takes the concerns of residents and the wider community very seriously and is working with the developer to agree as soon as possible a suitable alternative route for construction traffic to access the development site.

“An amended Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP), submitted by the developer to discharge a planning condition, has revised the proposed construction traffic route concluding that whilst the construction phase will be difficult whichever route traffic approaches the site, the route from the north affects far less people.

“The developer is currently addressing amendments sought by the council regarding this route. Once all details are considered acceptable the condition discharge application for the CEMP will be discharged by the council”