RESIDENTS living near a major York housing development say noise and dust are making their lives a nightmare - forcing them to flee indoors when they’re trying to enjoy their gardens.

Householders in Dijon Avenue say the building work on the former Lowfield School site in Acomb, where 140 homes are being constructed, has been dragging on for two years now, with another year of disruption still to come.

One resident, Phil Young, said he had been complaining since the work started to the council, his MP and the builders Wates Construction.

He said problems included operatives swearing, noisy radios, rats, contractors parking in Dijon Avenue, and work starting and early deliveries arriving before permitted times.

He had also complained about heavy goods vehicles tearing up the grass verges, breaking drains and damaging kerbs, and about problems with dust blowing off the site and into nearby gardens.

He claimed a big dust cloud from the site had recently forced him and his daughter to run inside their house.

“You could literally feel the dust/sand land on your skin,” he said, claiming that measures, such as sprinklers, had been promised to suppress dust but this hadn’t happened.

Another resident, Stuart Haigh, who lives near an entrance to the site off Dijon Avenue, said that as well as noise and dust, he was also affected by lorries heading into the site past his driveway entrance, often before they were allowed to arrive.

He said delivery lorries regularly went past his home, when another entrance off Tudor Road, was meant to be used, causing congestion which sometimes made it impossible for him to get out of his driveway.

A spokesperson for Wates Construction, which has recently handed its first homes over to new residents, said it wished to apologise to any local residents who had been affected by dust caused by the construction work.

“We appreciate this is unpleasant and take any complaints extremely seriously,” they said.

“We regularly dampen the soil to minimise dust, and during the recent spell of hot, dry weather, we’ve been increasing our dust prevention measures, not only providing an additional water bowser, but also locating water cubes near to areas of particular activity where the issue might be bad.

“We are now getting specialist advice to see what steps we might be able to take to manage the situation better.”

They said Wates made every effort to minimise disruption to residents near its sites, and it would respond individually to all concerns raised.

“We have reminded our subcontractors not to park around Dijon Avenue and will be patrolling the area every day to check, including moving on drivers who may have parked on adjacent roads," they added.

“Vehicles will instead be directed to the public car park in Acomb centre.

“We will be replacing all the grass verges, but in the meantime would encourage residents to report any vehicles they see parking on the verge to our security officer in the first instance, or to the council.”