Traffic and noise complaints over a new road project have forced a cash-strapped council to pay £5m in settlements to appease angry residents whose house prices have been devalued by noise.
Packages have already been paid to more than 1,000 residents in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
There are now calls to halt the huge housebuilding program involving more than 7,000 new homes by some of Britain’s biggest builders.
And residents are furious that council tax increases are funding the compensation package.
Critics say their local services will be overwhelmed unless more schools, doctors’ surgeries and shops are provided to cope with the influx.
The photo shows the old Eastmoor estate (in the background) and the new buildings (foreground) with a new road.
Packages have already been paid to more than 1,000 residents in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. In the photo: the new constructions with the new road.
Debbie Bennett from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, who was paid compensation after the value of her house plummeted after a new road was built nearby to service a huge new housing estate.
It comes after Wakefield Council began seeking a government bailout to pay £5 million to residents whose homes were devalued by a new highways scheme.
The 5km Neil Fox Way, named after Wakefield Rugby League player Neil Fox, was designed to relieve congestion around the 2,500 new homes on the City Fields Site.
Its original name was Wakefield Eastern Relief Road, to take traffic off Doncaster Road.
But as local conservative Nadeem Ahmed joked, the congestion is so bad that “the relief road needs a relief road.”
The route and site were previously green spaces and common land with a dirt road crossing them. According to locals, it was so waterlogged that it should never have been built on.
Since its inauguration in 2017, municipal leaders have had to resolve 1,075 claims for homes devalued due to traffic and noise.
One of those affected is grandmother Debbie Bennett, 52, manager of the local betting house BetFred.
She said: ‘We got it thanks to the trucks and all that. They warned us that if we didn’t accept it right there we wouldn’t get anything, so we were forced to do it.
Ms Bennett, manager of local betting shop BetFred, bought the two-bedroom property where she had lived since 1988 20 years ago for £39,500 with a council discount.
There are now calls to stop the huge housebuilding program involving more than 7,000 new homes by some of Britain’s biggest builders.
“It reduced my commute, but it devalued the house.”
Ms Bennett bought the two-bedroom property where she had lived since 1988 20 years ago for £39,500 with a council discount.
It is currently valued at around £80,000, but properties nearby have come on the market for up to £130,000.
The new path is behind his backyard, where there used to be fields full of deer.
And he added: “Now you don’t see any wild animals and it has cost me much more than two thousand dollars.”
“I already spent the £2,000 (it could have been £1,700) when I bought it a few years ago, so that’s it.”
Anyway I heard that the new houses are near a mining pit, since this was a mining town. It is assumed that the land was properly evaluated, but we estimate that at some point subsidence will occur.
His house was built during the 1960s. He continued: ‘It was all the Green Belt land where the new houses were built and it should never have been sold.
The latest owners considering a claim are Pat and Trevor Baxter, aged 71 and 63, who live a few doors down from Mrs Bennett and bought their property two years ago for £125,000.
Residents are furious that council tax increases are funding the compensation package, which has so far been paid to more than 1,000 residents in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
“Some people are happy renting houses around here, but if they decide to buy them, they might end up with something that’s not worth as much as they think.”
The latest owners considering a claim are Pat and Trevor Baxter, aged 71 and 63, who live a few doors down from Mrs Bennett and bought their property two years ago for £125,000.
They said their dream home had been ruined by traffic congestion. Mr Baxter, a bakery worker, said: “We were aware of the plan but were worried we had missed the boat.”
‘There was literally nothing there before the new road and the houses. Even in the summer it was wet and you had to watch where you stepped, so I was surprised they developed it in the first place.
‘You go to take a bus in the morning and take your life in your hands. It’s crazy that people are leaving the new highway at such speed.
‘When we came to see this place, the estate agent assured us that we didn’t have to worry and that they weren’t going to build in the nearby forest.
‘What worries us most is whether they are going to build in wood. They told us they weren’t going to build houses on this end, but they are doing it.
“They should build more affordable housing.”
The 5km Neil Fox Way, named after Wakefield Rugby League player Neil Fox, was designed to relieve congestion around the 2,500 new homes on the City Fields Site.
Mrs Baxter continued: ‘The traffic is horrible. They use our highway as a shortcut and speedway. It’s horrible just trying to cross the street.
There are so many buildings going on that you drive by a place and there is nothing there. Three weeks later there is a block of houses there.
‘We have ten people living in a two-bedroom house just down the road. They had a toilet and a bathroom. We need houses for social needs.
‘They are talking about 3,000 more houses, in addition to those they have already built, without new doctors or new dentists.
‘I just cleaned my windows. I’m constantly cleaning them because I’ve never known a street so dusty with all this traffic in my life.’
Councilor Ahmed said: ‘The compensation is for the devaluation of the houses. Roads that had traffic of 100 a day now have 1,500 in East Moor, the worst affected area.
‘The five million were raised by increasing the municipal tax to the maximum allowed without a referendum.
‘People foot the bill and are not happy when promoters make millions. Politics has created many homes and the infrastructure does not exist.
Critics say their local services will be overwhelmed unless more schools, doctors’ surgeries and shops are provided to cope with the influx.
‘Locals feel they are done. They saw 100 cars a day and now they multiply that by ten. They were told it was a way to help make things easier for Wakefield, not just pave the way for more houses.
«They feel cheated, especially because none of the new homes are particularly affordable. They are in the range of £250k to £300k, which is not cheap for Wakefield.
‘There is always the argument that we need more houses, but clinics and schools are needed, or this will have a knock-on effect on the area.
‘The people affected say that all these houses were built there, that the council has to foot the bill and that national or local taxpayers will pay the developers to make huge profits.
‘I’m not against profits as a conservative, but I am against taxpayer-funded profits. They are a quarter of the way through a mission to put in 7,000 new homes.
‘Now they need to rethink it. People who grew up in Wakefield don’t get the school places we want.
‘Residents need at least a new primary school or doctor’s office to compensate for the 5,000 traffic movements outside their homes.
‘There are measures to recover this money from the Department of Transport, but it is funded by national taxpayers. Meanwhile, the promoters have raked in millions.’