Our lives are made a misery by new houses built looking right into our bedrooms – it’s unbearable but council don’t care
FEARFUL homeowners have complained that “Big Brother is watching” as an “indecent” new estate is built in the area.
Residents of Grantham, Lincolnshire say the new development will overlook their bedrooms and gardens and will invade their privacy.
The area being redeveloped into housing was once the site of the Shirley Croft Hotel, which had links to the iconic RAF Dam Busters, and sits in Margaret Thatcher’s home town.
However, neighbours have claimed the project will ruin their view, shatter their privacy and damage their homes.
They have also accused the council of allowing the development without proper consultation and say that the builders are motivated only by “greed”.
Rose Spear, 17, whose bedroom back onto the construction site said: “Whoever moves in will be able to look at me straight through my bedroom window.
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“It is all too close and it is an horrifying prospect.”
Rose lives with her parents and sister and told The Sun Online: “It will affect our privacy, loss of space and light, and our skyline.”
Also opposed to the project is neighbour Elzbieta Wood, a retired chef and speech therapist from Poland.
She said: “I love gardening, being in my garden, and now from a new three-storey house bang next door I’ll be over looked all the time.
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“When the people move in it will be like Big Brother is watching. It will be awful.”
She added that she and her husband had moved to the area for peace and quiet but the development has caused “so much stress.”
Her husband Kevin explained that the land had been sold to Grange Developments and that local residents had opposed the project from the beginning.
He also claimed that wood chips were constantly chucked up by the works and that his car was covered by brick dust every day.
Kevin added: “We appreciate new houses have to be built somewhere but surely not here where we are so overlooked. It has to be give and take with builders but with them it is all greed and more greed.
“What money are we going to got back because of devaluation of our property? Nothing.”
Next door to the Woods, retired engineer Jim Smith, 74, and his wife Cathy have lived in their lovely three-bedroom house for 25 years.
Jim said: “Our way of life will be changed forever, it is all about power and money for the developers and they are destroying our lives.
“It will block our view, our light, our privacy.”
The grandad of five added that the new build will spoil the garden for his green-fingered wife and young grandkids who love to play out there.
The hotel was demolished in 2011 and two new homes have already been built there.
Council planners are due to approve the building of new homes on the site at a meeting due on tomorrow.
The application, submitted by Grange Developments, lays out plans for nine five four-bedroom and four three-bedroom houses which have been recommended for approval.
Two have already been built with planning permission but are not yet occupied.
Councillors previously labelled the development as “overbearing” and “out of character”.
Mark Howard, owner of Grange Developments, said: “People are missing the fact the the site was already granted planning permission 10 years ago for eight big houses and two have been built.
“We can carry on building on the existing permission but we want to scale down the height to make it more appealing to the local need.
“This area in Grantham does not need big five bedroom houses.”
He added that he found it amusing that the people making complaints were “the ones living in big houses with big gardens”.
He also pointed out that the bungalows set for demolition were the hotel’s former staff quarters.
A spokesperson for South Kesteven District Council said: “The application has been assessed against the Council’s adopted standards in relation to both privacy and light levels.
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“Households neighbouring the site were sent a notification letter advising them of the planning application proposals and informing them how they could comment.
“A public notice about the application was placed at the site boundary in line with relevant planning legislation and the Council’s adopted statement of community involvement.”