Fed up of construction noise from new housing development next door, what can I do?

[MoosePickle]

Constant noise from new housing development from 8 until 6 weekdays and 8 until 1 on a Sat. Constant humming of machinery, beeping of vehicles, rumbling drilling, shouting of builders, sudden angle grinders etc. They are building 85 houses in the field next door. Has been going on for nearly three years and predicted at least one more as another phase to be completed.

Am at end of tether, can't enjoy garden, can hear it all with the windows shut...
Has anyone else been through this and successfully got the noise reduced.

My thoughts are, do I:

1. Raise it directly with the developers,
2. Raise it with the case manager at the council
3. Put in a noise complaint, Environmental health
4. Pursue them for loss of enjoyment of property (it's a legal thing I think) in the hope that they will reduce the noise rather than compensation.

Any help appreciated, from a frustrated and annoyed Mumsnetter.

I do t think there’s anything you can do.

They must have planning permission and they are sticking to legal timings.

This.

They are keeping to the standard hours of work.
The Council won't be able to do anything.

Noise cancelling headphones?
White noise to block it?
Music/radio playing background or via headphones.

Absolutely no hope on any front.

The noise changes as the build progresses - if they are putting in services, roads and digging footings at the moment, they'll be using lots of heavy machinery.

Once this phase is over, it will be a bit quieter but you'll be up against builders radios and lots of knocking noises for the block work or timber frame installation, scaffolding, roof work etc. Once it's all indoors it'll be radios again but much less racket generally.

There is probably no noise they can stop other then radios. Everything else is normal construction activity.

They are sticking to permitted hours, so: nothing.

Op surely you know they can’t do it quietly? There is nothing to be done here. They got planning. Stick to their hours. I’m sorry, but the moment planning was permitted,this was going to happen.

You can't do anything. They're working within allowed hours, and they'll have planning permission.

If it's within the allowed times, there's nothing you can do unfortunately. It might help to talk to the developers to see if there's anything they can do, they may be accommodating

As PPs said absolutely nothing.

They are sticking to the letter to permitted hours. Only if they start 5 minutes early or finish late can you complain. If they workmen start playing radios you can complain as well as I've noticed lots of building sites now don't have radios playing loudly. It is normally workmen doing a short job that play music/talk radio loudly.

I've had a couple of Spring to Autumns where my road was dug up by Thames Water than British Gas plus two small developments which took over a year. As long as they stuck to the permitted hours we couldn't complain. However twice Thames Water started work 20 and 30 minutes early so lots of people complained so they apologised and made sure they stuck to the hours. (Thames Water are currently back digging up a sewer pipe again. Their generator is going 24 hours a day.)

I used to near a railway line and a station. They had one bank holiday weekend where they had to replace a railway bridge and were permitted to work 24 hours from Friday night to early Tuesday morning. I like my neighbours had to put up with metal grinding on metal for the entire weekend. It was actually more painful than doing stuff in the ground or building work.

Thanks for all the replies so far, it is appreciated. Is there a max length of time this can go on for? Surely four plus years is excessive?

Side note: there are still some houses that they haven't built the foundations of yet so more piling work to come. The field they're building on in L shaped with us at the corner so building site on two sides.

I think the pandemic held up a lot of house building. There’s some near us that were started in 2019, stalled for 2 years and then picked up again.

The time limit placed on planning permission will be to have commenced works which they certainly have from your description. However the same cannot be said for completing a development.

Is there a max length of time this can go on for? Surely four plus years is excessive?

Nope. Just hope there isn't a down turn as they will stop work on the site and then start it up again when there is an up tick.

Also this is why lots of people sell their property as soon as they find out a development is going to happen next to their home.

Nope, no limits to building times once commenced. In Plymouth there's 5,500 homes going in (a whole new town) over about 15yrs. It's been 9yrs so far and they are just starting phase 3 delivery of the next 1000 homes.

Piling is unusual for a standard housing development - is it on very marshy land or something?

The HA replaced the rooves of our flats in the summer of 2020 Thirteen weeks of constant dust and noise on our section despite it only being four flats I suspect jobs are being dragged out to keep people in work

I sympathise but don't think you should do anything. You don't want to have to disclose a noise complaint should you decide to sell the house in the future. Especially since you are unlikely to get anywhere with a complaint.

Do you know if the developers are part of the considerate constructors scheme (www.considerateconstructors.com) because if they are there is a method of public compliant through that scheme?

My thoughts are that there is noise here which is essential for the work to be done such as machinery etc. but there is also noise that is not essential such as workers shouting etc. It is this unnecessary noise which I think could be complained about.

It is worth going to the council to raise a complaint as the developer would have had to have a plan in place to limit the environmental impact of their development in order to get planning permission.

I also think it’s worth going through all the actions you list as even if it goes nowhere. At the very least environmental health will investigate whether the correct methods are being used to limit noise impact. I complained about piling work at a nearby development and the environmental agents asked the developers to use a quieter type of equipment.