Construction works on greenfield site next to home is ruining our lives

[goldengrove]

Can anyone help with advice on this please? We're absolutely desperate owing to all the stress and disruption. Last year the local Council agreed that a greenfield site next to our home (which unbelievably also happens to be in a flood zone 2 and had protected species on it!) could be developed for new housing. They began work just after Christmas. Our peace has gone forever.
The builders are inconsiderate, have caused damage on the narrow road, our driveway is usually blocked by diggers and vans and I've now been diagnosed with reactive depression owing to extreme stress. It's been so bad I've been forced to rent accommodation elsewhere as I simply can't handle the noise. This is separating me from my disabled son for much of the week causing huge pain. Under lockdown of course it's even more intolerable as we are all forced to be trapped at home all the time with work and homeschooling. Yes I've tried to talk to Environmental Health about the impact, seems the most they'll do is ask the builder not to work on Saturdays (which he has then promptly proceeded to do). We'll have to sell the house and move. It's so clear that we are complete victims of this situation, bearing all the disruption and gaining none of the benefits.
This is a greedy developer who's already wealthy who is building himself another big new house along with a few others. We're not well off and are being driven out of our only home. It's breaking up the family and making me ill if not suicidal. Can we sue the Council? Is there anything whatsoever that we can do?

I've no advice but maybe ask for this to be moved to legal as you may get more help.

In short no. You buy your house ,not the area around it.

This would be one of my worst nightmares. I really feel for you. If they’ve says they can stop work on a Saturday, I’d push that to be enforced. Hope it all gets done quickly and that you can return to some sort of peace.

Sorry that sounds hard. But no I don’t think there’s much you can do apart from getting the Saturdays enforced. I’d push for getting the blocked driveway sorted too.

There's a huge building development directly opposite our house; over 50 houses being built, there's noise, the road has been closed a few times and big vehicles and machinery outside. However, as already pointed out- I don't own the land surrounding my house and houses need to be built. The developers are going to resurface the whole road once they're finished in a few months.

It's a nuisance but I'm not sure why this is affecting you to such a degree. Can you sound proof your house better? It's seems an extreme over reaction to four houses being built. So much so, you've moved out and left your son and the rest of the family?
You don't have any rights to sue I'm afraid.

Once the houses are completed, there won't be a need to move house will there? I wonder if the building work has triggered an underlying mental illness in you, exacerbated by the stress of lockdown and its associated factors?

You sound on the verge of a breakdown as a result of extreme stress, perhaps this hasn't all been caused by some nearby building works. Certainly trying to lodge complaints or launch fruitless legal battles will not be helping your mental health.

Did the person that built your house do it for love instead of profit?

Sorry, but this is a problem with your mental health and you need to deal with your ability to cope with life rather than focus of this building work. Go to the Doctors, get some private therapy. Try and access any services you can revolving around mental health.

It does seem to be a huge overreaction. Building work happens everywhere, I think instead of focusing on the negatives you need to look at why this is affecting you so much.

Perhaps some therapy and learning to be a bit more resilient will be better for you in the long term than thinking of yourself as a victim.
That is a strange way to look at something that is part of everyday life.

We’ve got a similar situation in our town (might even be the same town?) The construction company have gone against every restriction that has been put in place by the council and don’t care about any complaints. They are meant to have built an access road from the A road on the back of the site, but instead are using the small estate to the side as access. Lots of lorries and trucks all day, leaving mud everywhere, blocking drives with their lorries and then moaning about moving them As residents need to move their cars. There was even a case of a lorry managing to get tyre tracks in someone’s front garden as they had misjudged where the pavement was. The noise for those close by is loud and there is little respite at the moment as people are at home all day Trying to work.

I read this and thought it was an extreme reaction.

Have you spent a lot of time/head space thinking about how much you hate the work being done?

You need to change your thinking. You have let it get in your head and take over your life.

Be kind to yourself and let the hate and resentment go.

Have 10 minutes in the morning of swearing then leave your hateful thoughts there. I imagine you think about it all the time. You create scenarios in your head. Have conversations in your head and generally spend too much time hating something which is completely out of your control. This will lead to mental illness.

Find some way of re training your thoughts.
Therapy, CBT, meditation, exercise, get your blood pumping and burn off all that hate and resentment and anxiety by moving your body. Become exhausted physically. Your have a much calmer brain and have some endorphins flooding your body.

We have the same right next door to my house, literally next house.

Starts at 7am and they work until 8/9pm they have huge lights to work under after dark. They are working now, I can hear it as I type.

It’s been going on since March last year with a few months break in between and they haven’t even started building yet it’s been ripping everything down and sorting the land out. It’s going to take years as it’s a big development.

It’s noisy and sometimes I feel like my house is shaking, but honestly it doesn’t bother me at all.

The only annoying thing is the constant dust on my windows and cars.

Thanks to everyone for your responses. Grateful for the sympathy and also for the perspectives offered, even when more critical of my reactions. Perspective is possibly what I'm seeking atm, as I'm aware that I have got very upset about this. (Bit of a long backstory to this development which I won't bore you with).

Yes I am extremely sensitive to noise and yes, I am under a lot of other particular external pressures at the moment in addition to the building noise that is a completely new and (for me) major stressor. I have tried to give my head a wobble and gone to the GP for some advice, had a dx of reactive depression and now trying some meds.

Still feeling an overriding sense of injustice that building work, no matter how disruptive to hapless neighbours, seems to have a kind of divine right to proceed 5.5 days a week even during lockdown when folk are trapped in their homes for both work and school. The law doesn't seem to recognise the rights/needs of private individuals even in this sort of situation. That's all.

It's helpful to see that different people can have very different reactions to this particular stress.

I agree and commiserate with you Golden. A 6 month redevelopment next to my place is now entering it's third year and it's a constant disruption. Yep, we get all the crap and one of the benefit. I could make a long list of all the shitty things they've done from house damage onwards.

None of the benefit!

A development has started to be built right next to my home. It started on Monday and it is due to finish next May. The house shakes and the noise... don’t get me started.. I’m wfh.
Sympathies OP.

@goldengrove I feel for you. We have a building site behind our house. We appealed the planning decision but it’s going ahead.

Seven houses are being built. Currently we have noise of demolition of one existing house and the prep for the ground works. Last week we had the chipping of all trees (our natural sound barrier from the noise of the nearby industrial park).

Now at night time we can hear the noise from fans from catering place. On the plus side once the houses go up hopefully these will also block noise from the industrial park as they will overlook it.

My deepest sympathies to fellow sufferers in similar situations. With the amount of construction going on everywhere now, I'm clearly not alone. I know more housing is needed, but those of us who are currently in this situation mostly seem to agree that it's very tough, especially when the chances of escaping it - (eg going out to see friends for moral support, or away on holiday etc) - have never been more limited owing to this lockdown. It has undoubtedly had a severe effect on my mental health recently, on top of other pressures, and I was just wondering if people thought it was OK that the rights of construction companies should always outweigh the rights of the individuals impacted by their activities.

Get in touch with the planning authority not environmental health if there are conditions being breached.

That said, I have heard somewhere that restrictions on developers have been temporarily eased during the pandemic. Also I know many local authorities are helping with the Covid response or are cash strapped so that may limit their scope to enforce.

I would remember this is a short term thing. Once the development completes you will have a normal level of noise again

Yes Keyboard that's another thing that strikes me as very illogical - because construction work is outdoor and therefore supposedly 'safe', I think it has been given wider freedoms during the pandemic. Great for the builders, but sadly even more hell for those trapped next door to the sites.

Knowing the work will be finite should be some comfort, I agree - but it will certainly be going on for months to come and will be even more inescapable in the hot weather when windows have to be open.

I am sorry. We are in a terrace and the house next door is being fully refurbished and has had building work since last January. They kept going even during last March/April when pretty much everything non essential stopped. Including a lot of drilling directly against our wall.

It’s too expensive for the govt to furlough construction workers simply because their work will disturb neighbours during lockdown. So yes I do think they should be allowed to carry on, horrible as it is for you and me. I think perhaps some kind of hours restriction might be sensible but getting that implemented would take a long time and be hard to enforce.

I can only suggest noise cancelling headphones.

The planning authority will be able to tell you what the site working hours are. They’ll also be able to tell you what the planning conditions are (plant trees, improve drainage etc).
The site is almost certainly signed up to the Considerate Constructors scheme - there will be signs up promoting this. If there are, the contact CC re: inconsiderate practices.
Re: Flood zones - I work for the Environment Agency, in flood risk management. We are a statutory consultee for planning applications, but do not have the powers to veto a planning application. We can only provide advice.

It is horrible having continual noise and being blocked in etc but it might help to think of it as each element of work getting done, that only needs doing once.

If the hours of work are long, then the whole development will be over more quickly! Once one set of foundations has been dug, then they don’t need doing again. Eventually the road will be resurfaced, trees planted for screening and grass verges created. Then soon you’ll be able to meet your new neighbours! I know it sounds a bit trite but re-framing it all in this way might help you deal with it until it’s finished. It probably all looks at its worst right now...

I agree you need to reframe this in your mind. Your peace isn't "gone forever", you're not "complete victims" and you're not being "forced out of your home by a greedy developer". You have let the nearby building work consume your thoughts.

I'm not minimising your depression, or your suicidal feelings but they are likely a result of your whole situation; the stress of lockdown, feeling "trapped" at home, having a disabled son, trying to work from home are all stressful factors. I think you need to accept the new development instead of trying to fight it with complaints and law suits. That will potentially delay the completion date and contribute to your stress.

Just from the anecdotes on here, you can see housing construction is everywhere. There's no guarantee that if you move, the surrounding land won't be will be built on. It's life unfortunately.

This is a short transient stage in your life and I think you would be best putting your energy into finding coping strategies and seeking help and support for your depression. You are experiencing some temporary disruption to the calm of your environment but accept it is out of your control.

I'm sorry if that sounds blunt, it sounds as though you're struggling with your mental health and I sincerely hope you can find the inner peace you crave.

Thank you to the latest posters for kind words and some useful practical suggestions as to different ways of trying to look at the situation to help me cope better with it. Yes, it will finish one day, I know. I think part of my distress is grieving for what has gone - the destruction of the environment which is so important and irreplaceable. There are plenty of alternative brownfield sites that could have been chosen instead, that's another hard aspect of it.
BikeRunSki your points and expertise are appreciated. I had actually thought of recommending the Considerate Constructors scheme to the builders, because they clearly don't belong to this!
It's just one chap who owns the land whose company appears to have been set up solely for the purpose of this development just a few months ago. They don't even wear helmets on site!! No ref to the CCS on their board on the fencing - why would they choose to sign up to an agency that might actually criticise or curtail their behaviour? I imagine the company will dematerialize pretty fast once the works are complete and properties sold. Re: flooding, well only time will tell, but I think most people now accept that climate change is a reality. The new houses have been deliberately built with extremely high floors in clear anticipation of future flooding. So they themselves will probably be OK for a good few years yet, barring an exceptional rainfall event... The runoff from all the new driveways however will naturally flow where the ground/other houses are lower ... Yes, straight towards our house (hitherto unaffected by flooding, though plenty of the immediate neighbours are). All this information is factual, btw, gleaned from studying all the documentation online so not just my personal opinions/feelings. There is no question that we are getting the worst of this. I'm still puzzled as to why it was ever permitted in the first place. It was certainly emphatically refused countless times in the past many years, until planning policies weakened. But as others rightly say, it's a fact of life now, and a pointless waste of time/very limited energy to try to fight an unwinnable battle. Best to try to seek other ways to cope with it, of course.

I completely understand how disruptive work can be to mental health. My neighbours this week had new decking laid. The reverberations were literally shaking my walls and it was so difficult to relax with it going on. Mine was such tiny snapshot of what you are experiencing and I completely understand why you feel the way you do.