A group of home owners and other members of a Ewell neighbourhood have expressed their anger and frustration at the impact a new development is having as building work continues.

Residents near to the development at Scotts Farm Road in Ewell decried the impact of the ongoing building work and are campaigning for authorities to intervene.

People living nearby said their homes had been showered in “ferrous” dust from the site with noise pollution also disrupting their lives. One of them, Christine Bailey, told the Epsom Comet:

“We have had lorries with very large construction equipment; noise, vibration and dust has been incredible. Residents have suffered and are still suffering from the inconsiderate and un-neighbourly contractors...We cant see out of our coated windows, we’d like them open but start coughing and watering eyes. It’s not fresh air!”

Surrey Comet: Image of "ferrous dust" residents say has blown into their homes and gardens from the Scotts Farm Road site. Image: Christine Bailey Image of "ferrous dust" residents say has blown into their homes and gardens from the Scotts Farm Road site. Image: Christine Bailey

Bellway Homes secured planning permission in January to build 161 homes at the site, which formerly belonged to Epsom and Ewell High School, plus construction of new classrooms there.

The relevant planning application page on EEBC’s website displays over 900 comments from residents, with 913 objections and just 67 supporting comments in total.

“There is plenty of uninhabited housing in the area which could be renovated to provide housing,” one commenter, Epsom resident Natasha Herrington, said. “More housing means more strain on resources like hospitals and schools.” she added.

Bellway touts the benefits of the development in that it will “help finance the provision of new sports facilities” at the school, though it does acknowledge there has been an issue regarding dust.

In response to a query from the Comet, a spokesperson for Bellway Homes said:

“We aim to be considerate neighbour and...minimise the impact of construction works in the developments we build. However, moving large and heavy earth moving equipment is naturally noisy.

“The recent dry spell has created higher levels of dust than is normal on site. To mitigate this, we have used a bowser to spray water across the area to minimise the dust being generated.”

Bellway meanwhile added they were taken action against the dust problem: “We have installed debris netting along the boundary of the development and once a water supply is installed a sprinkler system will be in place to catch as much dust as possible.

“As a gesture of goodwill, Bellway will arrange for a window cleaning service for those neighbours who are directly on the front of the site boundary. This will be arranged after the initial phase as some dust is still being generated,” a spokesperson told the Epsom Comet.

It is unclear whether this offer of window cleaning will be enough to brook residents’ ire. “We do not sit in our gardens, its noisy and everything gets coated, including humans if they sit still for long enough,” Christine said.

She added that residents opposed to the development appreciated the need for more housing in the borough but felt their views had not been taken into account in this instance. 

"There were nearly 1,000 objections to this build. It still went ahead. We do not feel that we have been respected by the Council or the Developer,"  she said.