Truckers deliver a headache

FED-UP residents claim their lives are being made a misery by noisy late-night lorries going in and out of a busy factory on their doorstep.

Householders in Prospect Road and Sylvan Street, Westwood, say heavy goods vehicles often deliver to Armacell UK, on Mars Street, in the middle of the night.

They also claim HGV drivers who, if they cannot get their vehicles down the road, will knock on residents’ doors and order them to move their cars.

Armacell, part of an international company which produces insulation products, has been operating out of Oldham since the late 1960s.

Mohammed Ayub Ali (43), who runs his own clothes shop, has put his house on Sylvan Street up for sale.

“No-one will buy it though because of the impact of the lorries,” he said. “We’re so fed up, we don’t know what to do.”

Armacell applied for planning permission earlier this year to build a single-storey industrial unit which they say would allow for vehicles to avoid going down the main residential areas and instead go from the top of Mars Street and straight into the site. But an online petition against the development garnered 135 signatures.

Arissa Ali (17) lives with her family on Prospect Road and alleged that one of the HGV drivers broke the wing mirror of her dad’s car as he was driving down the road.

She said lorries often get stuck trying to turn on to the road and if a car is in the way, the drivers will resort to knocking on every door on the street until they find the owner of the vehicle to ask them to move it.

“It’s just frustrating,” Arissa said. “Sometimes they get the lorry on the pavement. It’s dangerous because you get kids running around here.”

A statement from Armacell said: “On many occasions we have approached the local authority to undertake work which was originally planned in 1994 to reopen the north end of Mars Street and make better access to the manufacturing plant, while also diverting vehicles away from the main streets.

“It is regrettable that some residents have raised their concern about the noise of vehicles accessing the Mars Street factory. We are looking into ways to minimise this impact.”
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