Sheffield University: Residents complain about building site
- Published
Connor O'Callaghan staged a peaceful protest at the site on Friday
People living near the construction site of a new university building have complained about the noise and dust being produced.
Work started on the University of Sheffield's Faculty of Social Sciences building last May, but problems mean half of it is now being knocked down.
Connor O'Callaghan, who lives on nearby Marlborough Road, staged a protest in a camping chair at the site last week.
The university has apologised for the disruption caused to residents.
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Construction company BAM has offered to fund office space for residents having to work from home, but Mr O'Callaghan said this is not guaranteed to be "Covid safe".
The £65m building is being constructed on the junction of Whitham Road and Northumberland Road.
The building work began on the site last May
Work began last year but one of the buildings started to sink and, according to the university, it was found the foundations were not deep enough.
The work is now expected to take an extra 10 to 15 months to complete.
Mr O'Callaghan said: "The noise last summer was absolutely deafening. We kind of thought the worst of it was over and then we got a letter through the door to say that they were going to have to knock part of the building down and start again.
"I think we have been as good as gold about it but we are really, really sick of it at this stage.
"We have tried and tried to talk to the university but they have gone completely silent on this.
"They should have the good grace and the community spirit to talk to us about it. They have become the nightmare family living next door."
A University of Sheffield spokesperson said: "We are very sorry about the disruption to local residents.
"We continue to work closely with the contractor BAM, who are responsible for the site, to look at how they can minimise disruption as much as possible."
BAM said it had "every sympathy for those living nearby".
It said: "We have offered the close group of neighbours alternative working space away from the scheme and hope this will be of some assistance to them although none have taken it up so far.
"Meanwhile we are doing whatever we can to minimise noise and dust, monitoring noise and vibration levels, and have shortened the working hours of the noisiest deconstruction machinery."
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