A supermarket has continued taking noisy late-night deliveries despite receiving an order to stop.
Neighbours living near Lidl in Atlanta Boulevard, Romford, have been campaigning for years for an intervention due to the noise from deliveries.
Issued by Havering Council on October 27, the notice ordered the supermarket to begin complying with the delivery and collection times stipulated in its planning permission.
These are listed as between 7am and 9pm on Monday to Friday, and between 10am and 5pm on Sundays and Bank or Public Holidays.
Earlier this year, resident Rhonda May, 64, told the Recorder how lorries would arrive well after 11pm and sometimes around 2am, meaning she and her neighbours slept “terribly”.
Since Lidl received the notice, Rhonda acknowledged the deliveries have not been as late as before.
However, she said they remain ongoing outside of the allotted hours, and that her sleep continues to be affected.
“I just wanted it sorted,” she said. “It’s not done my health any good, and it’s upsetting.”
One of her neighbours, Sandra Stimpson, 71, has a property upstairs, where she has lived for 39 years.
Sandra said since Lidl moved in, “it’s been noise”.
“I can hear it everywhere in my flat,” she added.
Local Labour councillor Jane Keane, who has been working with the residents to raise the issue, described the deliveries as “really disruptive”.
“There’s no doubt that the store provides real service to the neighbourhood in terms of discounted food in the time of the cost-of-living crisis,” she said.
However, Cllr Keane added she is “urging Lidl to engage with us".
She said: “We want people to understand that a planning condition is a planning condition.”
A Lidl spokesperson said that since the company learned about the breaches it has conducted an internal investigation and found them to be isolated incidents.
They added: “It’s always our aim to be considerate neighbours to the communities we serve and keep disruption to an absolute minimum, and we would therefore like to sincerely apologise to local residents for any inconvenience caused.
“We are in direct contact with Havering Council and would like to reassure the community that we have taken steps to mitigate the risk of reoccurrence, including updating the delivery schedule.
“We will continue to closely monitor these deliveries and would like to take this opportunity to thank local residents for their patience whilst we work to ensure they have access to all of the goods that they need.”
The leader of Havering Council, Cllr Ray Morgon, said: “We have received complaints from members of the public regarding the delivery times to the store outside the permitted hours.
“Planning enforcement officers have been working closely with the store owners to address this but having seen no improvements, attended the site two weeks ago to serve a breach of condition notice.”
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