A local councillor has reacted furiously to the news that Durham County Council has approved round-the-clock demolition and construction work for the redevelopment of The Gates shopping centre in North Road, Durham.

Along with many nearby residents and the areas two residents’ associations, Elvet and Gilesgate Councillor David Freeman had objected to the proposals. Despite this Durham County Council has just granted planning permission for round the clock working.

Commenting on the announcement Cllr Freeman said:

“When The Gates got planning permission originally it restricted the hours of working to 8am-6pm Monday-Friday and 8am-1pm Saturday.

“The Council is now allowing working through the night Monday to Thursday. The noise which will be generated for surrounding residents in St Godric’s Court, St Anne’s Court, Lambton Walk and Highgate will be dreadful and I fail to see how the Council can believe that the noise and disruption to residents complies with planning policies protecting residents amenity.#

“The redevelopment is being undertaken by major building firms who should have known when the original planning application was proposed if they required work taking place overnight. They did not apply for it then and it should not have been given.

“Even the council’s own “Noise Action Team” said that considering the proximity of nearby residential properties they concluded it likely that noise from the proposed 23hr working is likely to be noticeable and disruptive at times and cause a significant adverse effect and would be a statutory nuisance, as defined by the Environmental Protection Act 1990. I believe that the redevelopment works always required night time working for it to be carried out as during day time shops are still open. The developers must therefore have known that they required round the clock working and suspect that this was not asked for originally as it could have been more difficult to get planning permission.

“The Council should have rejected the night time working and asked the developers to go back to the drawing board. Instead they have backed down from this and local residents will suffer as a result.”