Justified road rage

In the end it wasn’t a bad summer... unless you live near the roadworks at junction 20 of Paston Parkway. While the rest of us were heading for our back gardens to enjoy the sun, the good people of Harebell Close were close to the edge. Windows were shut and heads stuck under pillows.

This summer has been a living hell for people like Pamela Aldington and Dick Hughes of Harebell Close.

All day and all week the couple and their neighbours have suffered the incessant noise of roadworks .

Pamela said: “The vibration is terrible, it frightens the dog. It’s like an earthquake.’’

Pamela and Dick don’t strike me as trouble-makers or moaners, more like ordinary decent Peterborians put in a horrible situation.

The work is being carried out by Peterborough City Council and their response to the story was little more than a collective shoulder shrug.

The work it says is vital because “our roads are not built for the level of growth that we are due to experience over the next 10 years.’’

I don’t dispute that but Pamela and Dick and others who are living the area are paying a heavy (and disproportionate) price for progress.

Why hasn’t the council offered these poor people some compensation? It wouldn’t stop the noise but perhaps £500 a household would have funded a week’s holiday and a much needed break from the racket.

I don’t know how many households are affected as badly as Pamela and Dick’s but even if there were 100 it would only cost £50,000.

In a project costing £6,300,000 that doesn’t seem too much. And considerably less than the £800,000 of our money the council is going to spend to put right the ill-fated Fletton Parkway roadworks.

The council though is having none of it and said: “This is not a case of negligence or nuisance on the council’s part so we would not be under any obligation to compensate for the noise.’’

It should have added the word ‘legal’ before obligation because it certainly has a moral one.