Our peaceful country life has been RUINED after ‘UK’s busiest road’ was built next door – the noise is unbearable
HOMEOWNERS say their lives have been ruined by nightmare noise after what’s been dubbed Britain’s busiest road was built next door.
Neighbours living mere metres from traffic thundering along the most-used stretch of Greater Manchester‘s M62 motorway have told of their misery.
Some 144,000 cars and lorries pass each day – rattling the walls and making what has now become an unbearable din, say locals.
An 80-year-old farmer in Rakewood, near Littleborough in Greater Manchester, has gone public with his complaints.
The picturesque rolling countryside surrounding the highway offers scant solace when it comes to living there, he told YorkshireLive.
The elderly man, whose home sits just 30m from the motorway’s summit, described how life used to be “nice and peaceful” before it was constructed and finally finished almost 50 years ago.
But he has now been ground down by decades of congestion and commotion.
He said: “You don’t get used to the noise – when it’s wet it sounds like you’re on the seafront and when it’s summer we have to shut the windows because of the dust.”
The M62 is home to several houses enduring the constant traffic.
These include Quirky Stott Hall Farm – an 18th century farmhouse near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, perched between two of the motorway lanes.
It hit the headlines when previous owner Ken Wild refused to move to make way for the M62.
The farmer, who died in 2004, had fought against selling land his father had bought in 1934 when plans for the motorway on the moors were approved.
The pair were part of mass protests from farmers over the motorway cutting through miles of rural land.
More recently, it has been occupied by another farmer Paul Thorp and his wife Jill Falkingham.
Talking about the motorway, Mr Thorp previously told the BBC: “Some days I wish I could switch it off.
“But I haven’t found the off-button yet – we just have to live with it. It’s not going to go away is it?
“I’m resigned to it, I’ve taken it on – I knew what it was when I came here. It’s there to stay, for sure.”
Construction work on the M62 began in 1960 before final parts were added in 1976.
The stretch between West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester is the UK‘s highest elevated section of motorway, at a maximum 372m above sea level.
Other locals unhappy with life next to a motorway include many in Rowley Regis in the West Midlands, with cars zooming along the M5 including into and out of England‘s second city Birmingham.
Complaints have also been made by a dad living under the M4 motorway in Port Talbot, Wales – although his wife says she feels fine about it.
Another family living below the same stretch this week told how they actually find the noise soothing.