FRUSTRATED home owners are hold a meeting with their MP and a rail representative tonight to discuss vibrations and noise from Eurostar trains running through a tunnel under Blue Bell Hill, near Maidstone.

A group of villagers from some roads in Blue Bell Hill and Kits Coty have launched a petition to call on Union Railways, the company that commissioned the building of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), to remedy the problem.

Nearly 100 people have signed it so far, fearing that the value of their homes has tumbled.

Many of them will meet Jonathan Shaw MP (Lab, Chatham and Aylesford) and Richard Jones, CTRL's public affairs manager, at Burham Village Hall, Rochester Road, at 7pm.

Beverley Craddock, whose family have lived in the same house in the Kits Coty area since 1930, said: "Imagine a steam roller that's coming through the front of your house and that four of five times an hour - that's what it sounds like.

"You can sit in your bath and it feels like the train is running underneath you. It is affecting people's quality of life."

People had counted as many as 44 passing trains in one day, from 6.15am until 10.30pm, she pointed out.

Mrs Craddock added: "We were given assurances by Union Railways that there would be no significant effects."

She said that when freight trains started running through the tunnel in 18 months time, the problem would get worse.

Some residents have experienced vibrations and noise since August, when high speed trains started to run along the first half of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, from North Kent to Folkestone.

Before that, construction noise had already tested their patience, according to Mrs Craddock.

Mary Allen, whose family have lived in the Blue Bell Hill area for 12 years, said: "The noise is like a very fast spin on a washing machine. It's like thunder sometimes."

She said: "Some people are asking for compensation, others are saying no way would they be able to sell their properties with the trains being so frequent. One person tried to sell her property but it fell through."

Cllr Allan Sullivan (Con), borough councillor for Blue Bell Hill and Walderslade, said that one house he had visited in the area had developed cracks.

He said: "The owners are distraught, to put it mildly."

Cllr Sullivan said that many people did not want to be "bought off" with compensation and added: "The noise may be reduced if the speed of the trains were reduced going through the tunnel, but we're not experts in that."

He said: "Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council and a number of other councils did petition a select committee back in 1995 to question whether the specifications were adequate to ensure that we were not adversely affected by noise and vibration."

Aylesford Parish Council wants to support the residents and has asked Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council if the noise and vibrations from the high speed track fall within levels agreed in Parliament.

In a letter to the borough council, parish council clerk Tim Thompson said: "The parish council wishes to lend the full weight of its support to adversely affected parishioners but can only do so with the benefit of full and accurate 'baseline' information."

A spokeswoman for CTRL said: "We have been invited to attend by Jonathan Shaw MP, who will be chairing the meeting.

"We will explain the project's position and respond to questions the residents may have."

The company declined to comment further.