A housebuilder is under fire in Ripon amid fears someone could be killed or injured by “speeding” lorries visiting a construction site.
Residents living near the 390-home Fountain’s Walk development say planning conditions are being breached over the vehicle movements.
They claim there are too many HGVs travelling to and from the development and that the vehicles are being driven too fast in the Whitcliffe Lane and West Lane area.
It was also claimed at a meeting of Ripon City Council on Monday that elderly residents were unable to leave their homes due to the number of queuing HGVs at certain times of the day.
Concerns about dirt and dust, and damage to the road surface were voiced, with the meeting being told the housing developer had refused requests to install wheel washes to reduce mud on the road.
Members of the public who spoke at the meeting also claimed vehicles were arriving earlier than they were allowed, and the trailers should be covered.
Ripon resident Victoria Kirkman said a one-way system should be introduced for construction traffic to ease the situation.
She added:
“The breaches that we are most concerned about is the speeding, the volume of traffic and the fact that they’re uncovered.
“It has been witnessed that these trailers are travelling at speed and if they had to stop, they would not stop quickly. It’s a highly residential area, lots of children, families and social housing.
“We do not want a fatality and anyone being a ‘lessons learnt’ by North Yorkshire Council or Taylor Wimpey.”
Councillor Andrew Williams said Taylor Wimpey have promised to install a wheel wash but it had not materialised.
He added:
“Yet again they are promising to install one as and when required in the winter months. The problem is that any bad weather causes mud to come off the site and it spreads out over the local residential estate.
"The speed at which some of the vehicles are travelling along Whitcliffe Lane is totally unacceptable — it has to stop and it has to stop now before someone is injured.”
The councillor proposed that the city council write to North Yorkshire Council’s planning enforcement team about the alleged breaches of planning conditions and the need for a wheel wash.
The proposal was agreed by councillors, with members also agreeing to write to the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner about their concerns.
In response to the criticism, a Taylor Wimpey spokesperson said:
“We are aware of residents’ concerns regarding the soil movement works taking place at our West Lane development in Ripon.
“We apologise for any disturbance this may be causing and would like to assure residents that we are doing all we can to keep disruption to a minimum.
“We will continue to work closely with North Yorkshire Council throughout the planning and implementation of these works.”
The soil movement works is expected to continue for around six months and involve 20 to 30 trucks daily travelling along the designated construction route on Whitcliffe Lane, Ripon.
The developer said there would be an increase in frequency of road sweeping and a wheel washing system would also be installed on site if the weather conditions required it.
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