Furious Stratford couple in defiant mood as they block worksite gate near their home
A FURIOUS married couple who are sick of the never-ending nightmare caused by the roundabout work at Bordon Hill took matters into their own hands-on Monday when they blocked a contractor’s gate with their campervan called Hilda.
Gloria Reed and her husband Steve have lived in their home at the foot of Bordon Hill for 33 years but the peace and tranquillity of their daily lives has been shattered for the last 18 months by the continuous roadworks on Evesham Road. Their house is directly next to the roundabout and the ongoing construction is right outside their front door.
Just like other residents living close to the roadworks, Gloria and Steve have felt powerless to do anything but on Monday they hit back and blocked a gate used by contractors working on the site with their campervan which is named after Gloria’s favourite auntie called Hilda.
The final straw for the couple was a letter from contactors dropped through their post box late last Friday afternoon advising residents that more roadworks were scheduled to take place on Monday 14th August.
“We need to park our campervan on our driveway but we’re constantly having issues with this project and we need to get in and out of our drive to go about our lives and keep an eye on Steve’s dad who’s not well. We’ve parked away from our driveway for weeks at a time because it’s become so difficult while this thing drags on. On Monday we’d had enough so we got up at 6.30am and blocked the gates but left enough room for cars to get through,” Gloria said.
Warwickshire County Council is overseeing the project with sub-contractors Montel Civil Engineering and the roundabout will provide access to a new link road as part of housing developments by Vistry and Bloor Homes.
At a public meeting held on 31st July, 130 residents turned up to voice their frustration and anger with county council representatives and were outraged to learn the project - which should be completed in September - might actually go on until next April.
“It’s affecting our health. We can’t sit in the garden because of the noise. We can’t wash clothes and hang them out to dry because there’s building dust everywhere. We can’t have any visitors and sometimes we can’t get into our own drive because of the work vehicles and we can’t open the windows at night because of the water pumps working most of the time,” Gloria said.
To make matters worse the driveway is also being used as a turning circle for delivery trucks which is why the letter on Friday sparked a reaction from Glorias and Steve.
“We’d had enough,”” Steve said. “The letter dropped through the letter box and it was too late to talk with anyone because it was the weekend, they’d all gone home. It’s just an incompetent design and every time you pull out of our driveway it’s like Russian roulette with the traffic. Nobody’s taken any notice of us.”
Monday’s protest was peaceful. It’s resolved itself for the time being when contractors agreed to pay a week’s worth of parking at Stratford Racecourse for Hilda the campervan.
“The peasants are revolting and it was our way of saying ‘welcome to our world’ for everything we’ve had to put up with and the impact on our health,” said Gloria.