Burnham residents call for an end to construction site on green

Residents of Grenville Close in Burnham have expressed their frustration at a housing association for letting contractors use their neighbourhood green as a base for builders.

More than a year ago L&Q granted Equans access to the close’s central green space to use as a storage and works site.

Since then, residents say they have experienced an increase in noise, waste and traffic and generally feel inconvenienced by having to share their street with a construction operation.

Metal containers, a generator, building materials and rubbish are all in view from homes despite being fenced

off. Numerous vans and

lorries access the site daily to gather equipment.

The residents feel that this affects their quality of life and have written to L&Q demanding answers.

They say a generator runs from 7am to 6pm on work days, there is an unsightly build-up of waste and vans are being loaded from 6.15am.

There is also less space for children to play and, with the high volume of traffic, parents are worried about road safety.

The residents, who share updates via a WhatsApp group, state that they are regularly prevented from accessing their own driveways.

Manish Vara said that trucks blocking driveways is ‘a regular occurrence’ and recently caused his child to miss a medical appointment.

He said: “It started off with local housing improvements – which have been completed – and now the site has been

expanded and is purely used for work that is happening in other areas.

“They are using it as a storage site and putting their waste here.”

Mr Vara has written to L&Q to raise concerns.

“Children have always played on this green and it is exposing them to things like used toilets and the generator fumes. It’s just inconsiderate,” he said.

“There has been no response from L&Q and it’s really frustrating.”

Burnham parish council chairman Cllr Marie Hammon lives nearby.

She said: “They should not exploit that space because it is not their space to exploit. It’s their job to look after the area, not to make a mess, not to

endanger children’s lives.

“The green is there to give the residents a standard of life. I want Burnham to remain like that.”

A spokesperson for L&Q said: “We’re sorry for any

inconvenience caused to

residents in Grenville Close.

“Materials are being stored on a site in this location by one of our partners, Equans, while they carry out works as part of our Major Works Investment Programme.

“This will see us investing around £1.3million in L&Q

residents’ homes in this area this year, with works including replacement kitchens, bathrooms, windows, roofs and doors.

“Equans wrote to residents in Grenville Close to let them know this would be happening, and to reassure them that disruption would be kept to a minimum and parking wouldn’t be impacted.

“It’s very important that along with our partners, we’re respectful of the residents whose homes we’re working

in or around, and minimise disruption as much as is

possible so we will be working with Equans to look into these complaints.”