24-hour work causing headache for residents
Plea to Network Rail over noise and light nuisance
A Perth councillor is urging Network Rail to hold a meeting with residents after grave concerns over “24-hour” work taking place just yards from their homes.
Perth City South ward councillor Willie Wilson has called for the meeting amidst locals’ anger over “light and noise” disturbances to homes on Glover Street.
Network Rail chopped down hundreds of trees in the Perth Railway Station yard, which hugs the border of the Glover Street back garden fences, last spring to make way for a new storage facility, despite protests from residents.
Prior to the move the residents warned the rail company the treeline was vital to them as it acted as a natural sound and visual buffer between the yard and their back gardens, as well as inhabiting a variety of wildlife.
Network Rail initially agreed to halt plans to cut down the trees after meeting with PKC chiefs and local residents at the beginning of March 2019.
However, after their ecological survey determined there were “no nesting birds or other wildlife in the trees”, the forestry corridor was removed and residents accused Network Rail of treating them with contempt.
Network Rail did build a new boundary fence between the yard behind Perth Railway Station and the Glover Street gardens, however it appears to have done little to quell the unrest from locals, citing poor construction.
Cllr Willie Wilson branded the mass cut down last March as “ecological vandalism” and with residents’ worst fears over noise pollution now becoming a reality, he is urging Network Rail to hold a meeting regarding the ongoing developments in the station yard.
He said: “Work continues sometime on a 24-hour basis and this causes light and noise disturbance to local residents.
“A wooden fence erected between Glover Street properties and the rail yard was installed roughly and there are problems with the finish of this.
“The third main area for concern is that vehicles are left dumped outside houses for long periods of time without any obvious activity taking place.
“A JCB sat outside one resident’s for nearly two weeks over the Christmas holidays.
“I have continuously asked Network Rail to come up with a plan of what they propose for the site.
“This would simply outline in general terms what functions were to be used for particular areas on the site.
“They keep replying that they don’t have a plan and the use of the site will depend on practical consideration such as the type of work that has been undertaken at any one time.
“Whilst I understand that there has got to be a degree of flexibility, surely to goodness an organisation such as Network Rail would have an outline plan of where the main plant and storage areas would be.”
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “The area behind these properties has always been operational railway land and it is now being regularly used for the storage of equipment and materials.
“The exact use of the site will vary depending on the type maintenance work being undertaken on the Highland mainline.
“We have been in dialogue with the residents whose back gardens border the site since last summer and are committed to working as considerately as possible at this location.”