ANGRY residents claim heavy lorries trundling in and out of a York housing development are making their lives a nightmare.

Householders in Fifth Avenue say tipper trucks and diggers from the Derwenthorpe site are causing deep potholes and cracks in the road surface, and also damaging kerbs and verges.

They also believe the vibrations from lorries passing over bumps and potholes are causing cracks in their homes, and say they are worried about the safety of children going to and from a local primary school.

One resident, Lesley-Anne East, said: "The road is absolutely atrocious. One of the potholes is so bad that I'm worried someone will ride into it on their bike or moped and be thrown off. Someone has parked his car over one of the holes at night to make sure a cyclist doesn't go in it."

She said residents were also sometimes unable to get out of their drives because of lorries parking up or queuing to get into Derwenthorpe.

Another resident, Kim Jackson, said:" It's horrendous. There's constant noise from 8am until sometimes 7pm, and on Saturday mornings, when it often goes on into the afternoon. They damage the kerbs and the grass verge with their lorry wheels."

Osbaldwick councillor Mark Warters claimed that all the problems caused by construction traffic going through Osbaldwick and Fifth Avenue could have been avoided had a special access road been built for the lorries across fields from Osbaldwick. However, this had been turned down by the council to protect the land from development, even though housing was now being proposed there.

A spokesman for the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, which is behind the 500-home Derwenthorpe scheme, said it had not received any complaints relating to the condition of Fifth Avenue or safety concerns. However, it was aware that the developer David Wilson Homes was currently undertaking some repair work to the affected areas.

City of York Council, said the government’s inspector had agreed at a public inquiry in 2007, prior to development of the site, that Fifth Avenue was appropriate to use as the main route for access for construction traffic.

" Any damage to the highway as a result of the heavy construction vehicles will not come out of the public purse and all repairs will be paid for by the developer," added a spokeswoman.