RESIDENTS in Hawkesbury Upton have raised concerns that the access to a new development in the village is unsuitable, due to its ‘severe physical constraints’.

They claim the road required for access to a new site for Spitfire Bespoke homes which will have 21 units on Park Street, Hawkesbury is too narrow for the volume of works traffic necessary to complete the work on the development.

Roger Jones, a resident of Park Street, claims the initial contractors caused severe obstructions when laying the power supply to the site, which he says was reported to the council.

Mr Jones said the road surface repeatedly collapsed and remedial work had to be undertaken.

Mr Jones has captured a number of images where work lorries have been forced to mount the pavement to navigate the way to the site.

One shows an excavator pictured being driven on the footway during work and another image of the power supply being laid to the site - Mr Jones claims there is no safe pedestrian passage afforded between a tipper truck and the adjoining boundary wall.

He said: “I had to squeeze through the narrow gap between the lorry and the wall, whilst pushing a bike, and had to request the workers to stop operating the overhead crane as I did so.

“Immediately prior to my negotiating this gap a lady did likewise, with the crane operating overhead. Having done so she indignantly exclaimed to one of the workers ‘It’s a good job I didn’t have my buggy with me’.

The development was opposed during planning process by local residents, the parish council, the district councillor, Luke Hall MP, the British Horse Society Rights of Way office and an independent traffic consultancy who all objected to the application on the grounds of the access presenting a dangerous conflict of road users.

However, a transport development officer for South Gloucestershire Council, stated the access to be satisfactory, but added it to be, “difficult”, and “poor, and this application will make it materially worse.”

A spokesperson for South Gloucestershire Council said: “All planning applications that are submitted to us are processed in line with local and national planning policy, including the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

“Following a complaint received from a local resident relating to construction vehicles and utility work associated with an approved development off of Park Street in Hawkesbury Upton, our StreetCare Team has visited and spoken with the contractor. Park Street is the only access route to the development and the contractor is responsible for safely carrying out the required work and keeping any disruption to a minimum. We will continue to monitor the situation going forward.”