The deafening squeal of diggers and clouds of dust at a new homes development is driving neighbours "up the wall".

One residents in Stone Cross Lees, Sandwich, says she wasn't able to have her doors and windows open in the heatwave or go into the garden because of the din.

And when Kath Gifford tried to watch the TV inside she said she couldn't even hear it.

One resident nearby at Dover Road has written to the district council to complain of breaches of planning conditions with the workers turning up on Sundays and bank holidays, for which an apology has been issued.

And a town councillor said he's getting five to 10 emails a week about the disruption.

The groundworks are for 56 homes at the former Kumor Nursery site off Dover Road.

Construction company Chartway are building them for Westerhill Homes who got planning permission in March 2020. It was narrowly voted through despite strong objection from residents and the town council.

The development will be named Pebblegate Place and is already being marketed by the developers online using computer generated images to attract sales.

In what Cllr Paul Carter (Independent) described as a "large saga" of problems spanning many months, householders at Dover Road and Stone Cross Leas have even complained of being woken up at 6.15am by the racket of plant machines "with their engines running waiting to get on the site that opens at 7.30am."

Mrs Gifford claims her back door is just 12 paces from the site and her garden has the largest boundary with the land.

When she contacted KentOnline's sister paper the Dover Mercury, she said: "It's 5pm - what blessed relief. The end of the noise for today from the deafening plant, the squeal of the pile driver and the dust, too.

"Now we can open our back door and windows and go into the garden. How much longer? It's driving us round the bend and up the wall.

"It's shoe-horned into a small landlocked site right next to loads of existing housing so every day there are issues..."

"There is no sign of the water bowser damping down the dust either."

Cllr Carter said: "The machinery on the site has been relentless with major noise, vibrations and now dust clouds.

"It's shoe-horned into a small landlocked site right next to loads of existing housing so every day there are issues.

"Many local residents have moved away and many others lives are blighted especially as we are all working from home in the heat with windows and doors shut."

And Ben Godden of Dover Road complained to the district council: "In March of this year we agreed to lease the end part of our garden to Chartway Homes for a period of 14 months.

"The planning permission for this unit was sought (with our initial agreement) by Chartway and was granted in February 2021 with a number of conditions, one in particular was that the unit would not be able to operate on a Sunday nor any Public Holiday.

"This condition was instrumental in our decision to allow the Unit on our land.

"The Unit has been open on Sunday, May 30, Bank Holiday Monday, May 31 and also on Sunday, June 6, which is a breach of the planning conditions.

"I visited the Unit on May 31 and spoke to the sales executive and made him aware of the breach of planning conditions and emailed him a copy of the notice which he states he has passed up to his seniors."

He added: "There is a surprising amount of disturbance from the visitors arriving to the Sales Unit (windows down in the sun with music playing) and in addition to this the entrance to the Sales Unit has been built up considerably from the original ground level and from the entrance to the Unit the whole of our garden is in full view to visitors.

The noise from the building site during the week and Saturday mornings means we are unable to enjoy our garden during this period of time and the frequent visitors to the site on the previous two Sundays and Bank Holiday have meant the same.

"This is especially unfair given the lockdown restrictions which have been place for the previous 15 months.

"Had the planning been agreed without the restriction in the permitted opening hours we would not have agreed to having the Sales Unit on our land."

In an email to residents Darryl Proudfoot of Chartway Group told them that damping down was happening to reduce dust and he was asking workers to do that more, and he said that the noisy plant machinery had now left the site and machines that remained would be less noisy. But he did not address the claims of a breach of conditions.

But a joint response from developers Westerhill Homes and builders Chartway Group did. The comment said: "Unfortunately our sales team launched unaware of the condition of opening hours.

"Now we have been made aware of it we do not open on a Sunday or Bank Holiday but we are seeking changes to the opening hours via the council as the development is proving so popular that we need to open to accommodate the high level of interest.

"We apologise for the inconvenience of the 3 days that we were open."

"We understand that the construction process can be disruptive, especially during summer months and we apologise for any inconvenience caused during the process of providing housing to the local area.

"No further piling is going to be required. We did write to all local residents to inform them that this process was going to happen.

"We have had three visits from the local Dover environmental health officer who is satisfied that we are operating correctly.

"There are two bousers on the site which are regularly used.

"Our Site and Sales team are in continuous dialogue with local residents and the local school with regular updates, including the latest one which is that the first timber frames will be arriving on site on July 23."

A Dover District Council spokesman said: "We are aware of concerns from residents, and officers have visited the site to look into this.

"Three site visits have been carried out, and the water bowser was in use each visit. There are now two water bowsers in use on the site.

"Confirmation has been received from the developer that all efforts are made for delivery vehicles bringing materials not to deliver at unsociable hours, like early morning. Dover District Council cannot control activities on the highway such as lorries waiting to access the site.

"The developer has been made aware of the breach of working hours and has now ceased operating on a Sunday. We continue to monitor the situation."

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