St Albans resident hits out at “inconsiderate” late night supermarket deliveries
Morrisons delivery van late at night. Picture: Rosalind Marshall - Credit: Archant
A furious neighbour has hit out at “inconsiderate” late night deliveries to a St Albans supermarket that “make sleep impossible”.
Rosalind Marshall said noisy lorries drop off stock at Hatfield Road’s Morrisons outside of permitted delivery times - before 7am and after 10pm - which disturbs her sleep.
Sometimes there are three lorries parked outside waiting to offload stock after the curfew has passed, she said.
Additionally, construction work on the supermarket building during the summer was so disruptive she felt forced to move out for a month just to “get a decent night’s sleep”.
She said: “It’s a residential area which is why there are noise curfews and it wakes you up when you are 20 or 30 feet away.
“I have spent a lot of time on the phone to them about it but they pass the buck from on person to the other. It wakes me up early in the morning, late at night.
“It’s become a sore spot for me because having constant sleep deprivation is really affecting my work, my stress levels, and it is very challenging.”
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She said it is a real racket: “My main gripe is that this huge corporation has a duty of care to the surrounding community, and they seem to be giving the opposite.
“The delivery curfew is openly flaunted especially on Friday and Saturday nights, and the response to a member of the community pleading with them to be more considerate has been rude, uncaring, sometimes belligerent, and passing the buck to the head office who promptly pass it back to the local store manager.”
Rosalind said she is currently working on a noise diary to pass on to St Albans district council (SADC) planning enforcement.
Head of planning for SADC, Tracy Harvey, said: “We receive many general inquiries about planning issues and give appropriate advice. However, we have not received a formal planning enforcement complaint about noise from Morrisons supermarket on Hatfield Road. If the resident concerned were to make one, then we would be happy to investigate.”
A Morrisons spokeswoman said: “On occasion deliveries have arrived at our store slightly outside our permitted hours and we apologise to local residents for the disruption this may have caused.
“We work hard to be a good neighbour and are in discussions with the council to review our delivery schedule.”