The usually serene Roundshaw neighbourhood was once the friendly refuge of learner drivers who opted to begin their automotive journeys within the confines of its noiseless and peaceful roads. Now, a plenitude of home renovations lining each street has led to the fading of this previous tranquillity. Any local resident would not be unaware of the endless clamour of heavy-duty equipment, rowdy builders and screeching excavators that have slowly been popping up in the area. It seems as if every corner turned is met with a new marring set of building works, and this trend has been on the rise in recent months and does not give any indication of slowing down. This leads the average citizen, exasperated and disheartened by the seemingly endless architectural pandemonium, to question what has caused such a phenomenon.  


We set out to the streets to question some of the homeowners that had simultaneously decided that now was the time to get work done on their homes. 

Mr Prakash stated, “Due to the pandemic, I have been able to move to a different house located nearby and constantly check on the progress of my own. It wouldn’t have been possible if I had to juggle going to work and managing the renovation.”  

He later went on to reveal, “Builders usually complete the work much faster if I am present and so it is essential that I am at the site as much as possible.” 

 

So, perhaps counterintuitively, the government’s mandate to stay at home and many firms’ decision to, even now, not allow workers back into offices has actually led to an increase in the number of people deciding to begin home improvements. You would be forgiven for expecting that employees, who are forced to stay in their homes for the foreseeable short term future, would not enjoy the diminished utility of moving house or having to bear with the hubbub of building equipment and personnel in their homes. In fact, the opposite is clearly true. People like the security of being in close proximity to the construction and this has led to more people opting to commence renovations on their home – much to the dismay of surrounding inhabitants. 

 

This leads those who are negatively affected by such noise and grime to question the local council’s decision to permit the erection of so many building sites nearby to each other within the confines of the neighbourhood. Inhalation of dust and other inconspicuous particles is a serious issue to, especially either very old or young, passers-by; it can be severely damaging to one’s health and should be limited in every case possible. We should not be negligent either about the extent to which the commotion caused by a new building site impacts neighbours and others on the street. Not only can deafening machinery assaulting one’s ears be annoying, but it also serves as a constant reminder to adjacent occupants that they themselves aren’t getting any work done on their homes, leaving them disheartened, and the problem may propagate even further as they follow in suit.  


It is essential that the council tends towards disallowing less pressing or necessary home renovations from beginning, especially during this trying time. Ostentatious flaunts of wealth, as most of these projects undoubtedly are, should be limited to allow for more desperate home improvements to take place. There needs to be a more extensive limit on the number of construction projects taking place in a given area at the same time. It is arguable that the contemporary view on home renovations is a never-ending cycle of needless refinement from which homeowners will never truly be satisfied; for them, there is no point at which a house becomes fully developed and nothing will prevent homeowners from furthering these enhancements well into the future. This egotism is being allowed to cultivate at the detriment to the wider community- and so we must question, when will it end?