Covering up is no solution, say waste site’s neighbours
Tuesday 17th February 2009, 2:29PM GMT.
Brian and Sheelagh Niles moved into Pointes Lane thinking the waste-sorting facility was on its way out but now Island Waste has applied to improve it. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 0721636)
POINTES LANE residents are hoping plans put forward to develop the waste facility there will be rejected.
Today is the final day for opposition to be registered to the construction of a covered separation facility. Neighbours feel that will not address the real problems of smoke, dust and the unsightly view of rubbish from their windows.
Brian and Sheelagh Niles have lived in Pointes Lane for a year-and-a-half. Their property is next door to the site and their garden looks onto it.
‘We were told when we moved here that it was moving,’ said Mrs Niles, 54. ‘But no such luck.
‘When the wind is in a southerly or south-westerly direction, we get engulfed in smoke. It’s poisonous smoke.
‘At one point last year, my granddaughter was playing in the garden. It was like the Sahara with the dust. We had to come inside. I had just painted the outside, but you couldn’t see the windows.’
Mrs Niles said they regularly picked up rubbish in the garden which had blown over the fence.
But she said the real problem was the smoke.
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You can’t move next to something then complain about it – unless you had no choice.
I’m guessing the previous owners had had enough and lied to sell the property.
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Pleinmont… You’re so right.. They moved in next door to the place…
Bet they the house for a lower value too. Cuz of what’s next door…
So put up with it or move
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I do understand why the next door neighbours are fed up with the smell and the smoke/rubbish etc. You cannot get away from the fact that if you buy a house next door to a tip or a recycling centre that you are going to experience the smells, noise etc eminating from that.
However, who was responsible for undertaking their ‘search’ prior to purchasing the house. We pay lawyers an awful lot of money for conveyancing fees and this should have been discussed prior to purchase -otherwise they could try and sue the lawyer!
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More likely another case of estate agents being economical with the truth, I suspect. The legal aspect is purely that, surely. It’s not in the lawyer’s remit to advise on location, is it?
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No it is probably not the lawyers job to advise on location but they should be advising on known problems. When we bought our house our lawyer went out of his way to point out what he considered could be future problems (even though there had never been any in the past). We decided to purchase our house with the full knowledge of what ‘might’ happen – so far the problems have not happened (and we have had this house for many years now).
I think it is true that estate agents over here are not bound by the same rules/laws as those in the UK when it comes to advertising and can be ‘economical with the truth’. It is surely up to whoever is undertaking the ‘search’ to point out the pro’s and con’s and also the survey (am I right in thinking that all buyers have to have a survey undertaken – mortgage companies insist on it – unless they are cash buyers).
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Pleinmont – you can move and then complain. Remember the advocate who bought a property some years ago near a shooting range and subsequently got it closed down as it was causing a noise nuisance?
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Covering the site with a building will improve the surrounding environment enormously. Neighbours will be protected from wind blown debris and noise.
This used to be a bitmac making plant with all the smells of bitumen and the problems of heavy lorries, so the area has had problems for over 60 years!
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