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Residents say a £3.5 million regeneration project on council-owned land is making their lives a misery.
A meeting is to be held to the discuss problems being caused by Medway Council’s Strood Waterfront scheme, which will create up to 1,600 new homes, business space and improvements to flood defences.
Nearby residents say the building sites in Canal Road and Commissioners Pit are creating constant noise and vibrations, which are causing their homes to shake.
It comes after a woman claimed she has suffered breathing issues, sinus infections, headaches, nose bleeds, shortness of breath, and has coughed up phlegm for the past 18 months during building works nearby in Strood.
Medway Council’s overview and scrutiny committee heard from Commissioners Road resident Vic Haywood.
With ward councillor Stephen Hubbard, he wrote to residents in Commisioners Road, Wingrove Drive, Canal Road and Kingswear Gardens asking for feedback - receiving around 30 responses.
The 60-year-old said: “The constant noise of vehicles moving, reversing alarms, earthworks and general metal bashing is intolerable. Vibration on both sites have caused significant tremors in homes.
“It has been akin to a minor earthquake, the only difference is this goes on for a few hours whereas earthquakes are just minutes.
“It’s caused pictures to fall off walls, ornaments from shelves, external and internal damage to brickwork.
“Gardens, outside furniture and windows are constantly coated in thick dust.
“Anecdotally, window cleaners have either quit or doubled their price.
“The dust has adversely impacted health, increasing asthma and coughs.”
Council officer David Harris, who is overseeing the project, said: “Any issues can be reported to the contractor on-site or the team. We’ve liaised with the public health team and the contractors on site.
“Noise and vibration levels were monitored throughout and the contractors stopped working when residents said it was too high.”
The vibrations have not gone above the legally specified limit.
Labour councillors Teresa Murray, Andy Stamp, Tristan Osborne, Alex Paterson and Simon Curry, who spoke in agreement with Mr Haywood’s findings, challenged officers about monitoring the problems.
Director of regeneration Richard Hicks said: “Given the nature and scale of regeneration works, there will be disruption and I am sorry.
“In terms of the flood defence works, we are almost finished and the works themselves are coming to a close.”
It was decided the regeneration officers and a representative from contractors Volkenstein would meet with Mr Haywood and councillors to discuss the problems. A motion was tabled to suspend the works until the problems were addressed but this was voted down by the committee.
“Given the nature and scale of regeneration works, there will be disruption and I am sorry..." - Richard Hicks, Medway Council
GP Julian Spinks has confirmed the building works are likely to worsen health problems.
On visiting the site, he said: "Despite the recent rain there’s quite a lot of dust on these windows, and if it's settling on the windows it means dust is in the air and you can breathe it in.
"Dust can include things that are bad for you, whether it is cement dust or particles of wood.
"From a long-term point of view, continuous exposure can cause silicosis - a nasty condition of the lungs.
"But on a shorter term, it can trigger new onset asthma.
"For people with chronic asthma and lung disease their condition can worsen.
"Unfortunately, the best advice would be go indoors and keep the doors and windows shut."
The project is being run by Medway Council and funding has been provided by South East Local Enterprise Partnership.
