RESIDENTS who live near a building site are calling for compensation from developers who they claim have made their lives a misery.

Residents in Wivenhoe’s Valley Road, Anglesea Road and Bowes Road are sick of heavy goods lorries travelling to the Cook’s Shipyard development at the lower end of the town.

Maggie Bernstein, 63, of Valley Road, said she had put up with the lorries for five years and added she cannot use her back garden because they cause so much air and noise pollution.

She said: “During the week from 8am until 5pm, and sometimes earlier, it is just a constant flow of lorries driving down here.

“The soil goes everywhere, the lorries are noisy and the roads are now cracked and ruined because they are only narrow and they just can’t take the strain of it.

“I think everyone living here deserves compensation for what we have had to put up with for all these years.”

Residents recently organised a protest by parking their cars in the road to block the lorries travelling to the site.

A meeting was subsequently held between Taylor Wimpey bosses and residents and it was agreed the company would deliver a newsletter to all residents to inform them what is happening.

The company has also pledged to repair roads and pavements damaged during the work and not to drive lorries down the road before 8am or after 5pm.

Stephen Ford, Colchester councillor for Wivenhoe Quay ward, said: “If Taylor Wimpey is promising to repair the damage on the roads in and around the area, that is great news. “Of course, it has been very difficult for residents having these large lorries rumbling up and down outside their homes every morning and it has been going on for a number of years now.”

The Cook’s Shipyard development includes 54 apartments, 44 houses and additional business and retail units together with the regeneration of the waterfront area.

The final phase of the development, Waterside, is set to be launched soon with the development scheduled for completion late next year.

A Taylor Wimpey spokesman said: “Although we have been working hard to ensure construction work on our Cook’s Shipyard development causes as little disruption as possible, we acknowledge some people living near to the site have been experiencing some inconvenience.

“We apologise sincerely for this, and would like to reassure the local community we are taking action to address their concerns wherever possible.

“This was discussed at length during a very constructive meeting we held with residents’ representatives and a local councillor.

“To ensure people are kept fully up to date with progress at the development, we will be issuing the first of a series of newsletters to households in the vicinity of Cook’s Shipyard in the very near future.”