Residents who live near an industrial estate in Alsager have called on the local authorities to act and improve their "quality of life".

Ian Scott, who was representing eight other neighbours who also live on Fields Road, Alsager, expressed his concerns to Alsager Town Council regarding the Excalibur Industrial Trading Estate.

He spoke at last night's (Tuesday, 15 December) Alsager Town Council meeting.

He stated that Fields Road residents exchange emails to share their grievances and there were five specific problems himself and his neighbours were experiencing coming from the industrial estate.

Floodlights were erected across the industrial estate in April this year and according to Mr Scott there is a total of 40 floodlights, which are permanently on from 4pm through to 8am the following morning.

Showing town councillors photos (see above) of the impact the floodlights have on his property, Mr Scott said: "The intense lights are visible from people's upstairs windows and gardens and this impacts on our quality of life, the local wildlife and it also has energy implications."

Mr Scott felt that planning application should have been requested to Cheshire East Council for the floodlights to be erected on the industrial estate.

The meeting was also told that according to Mr Scott, 19 CCTV cameras have also been erected across the site, which are visible from the front gardens of several properties on Fields Road.

Mr Scott said: "They give a rather unsettling appearance and are directed straight into our properties."

The Alsager resident reiterated they he felt planning permission should have also been sought for the installation for many CCTV cameras.

A long-term issue for Fields Road residents has been HGVs "persistently" approaching the industrial estate via a section of Fields Road, despite their being vehicle weight restrictions banning lorries using the road in place.

There have been previous instances where HGVs have mounted the curb and knocked down a highways sign, which was erected and detailed the weight restrictions on the road.

Mr Scott has previously returned home to find part of his window knocked down due to HGVs.

Mr Scott added: "I am concerned that if this persists, we are going to have further damage to our properties, but also potentially damage to people's lives with children playing on the pavements of which the HGVs are mounting."

Concerns were also raised about HGVs persistently parking outside residents houses on Fields Road and ignoring the yellow line restrictions.

There were also reports that the vehicles were driving towards the industrial estate using "excessive" speed.

Mr Scott claimed that the issues on the site have been "compounded" due to the owners of the premises recently removing a lot of vegetation within the area in preparation for a new gate to be installed.

Mr Scott concluded: "This has really opened up the panoramic view of the industrial estate and indeed the flood lighting."

The meeting was told that Mr Scott has already made a series of complaints to Cheshire East Council about the issues residents are experiencing.

Paul Tyson, who also lives on Fields Road, told councillors that in the evenings he "lives mostly in daylight" due to the floodlights.

Mr Tyson highlighted that the former tenants of the site, Freshpack, did make a concession and turned the brightness of the lights downwards.

The Fields Road resident told councillors that his brick wall supports the pavement and road infrastructure.

His house was recently built, but he was prevented from extending the height of the brick wall due the property having no foundation.

Mr Tyson added: "It is a very old wall which was probably built in the late 1800s, and a 40-tonne vehicle parking on that area presents serious dangers that the wall may collapse at some point."

After contacting Cheshire East about the issues, Cllr June Buckley received the following response from a principal planning officer for enforcement: "The issue of CCTV cameras has already been investigated and it has been noted that replacement CCTV has been installed and one of these cameras does not comply with permitted development."

Once that camera is made redundant and the other cameras that are old are removed, Cllr Buckley told the committee that the enforcement officer believes the CCTV would then be adequate.

The enforcement officer suggested the issue of floodlighting was passed on to Cheshire East's Environmental Protection team.

Sandyford Properties own the site, but according to Cllr Buckley when they have been approached in the past, there response was that it was the current tenant's responsibility to resolve.

After liaising with a member of Cheshire East's Environmental Protection department, Cllr Buckley was told that the current registered tenants of the site were a bakery firm.

However, after investigating further, the Cheshire East representative found that the bakery firm did not have the Excalibur Trading Estate listed as one of their working sites.

The trees along the western border of the industrial site have Tree Preservation Orders on, which fall between the boundary of 31 and 59A Fields Road.

Cllr Buckley said: "If we as a town council feel that any of those trees have been illegally removed, we should contact the tree department at Cheshire East."

Cllr Michael Unett, who has recently met with concerned residents on the site in the evening, felt the volume of lights directed towards neighbouring properties was "intrusive".

The Labour councillor wanted the previously damaged HGV road sign replaced but felt the area would benefit from improved road signage, which would inform heavy good vehicles not to use Fields Road.

For speed enforcement to be actioned against the heavy goods vehicles, Cllr Unett suggested deploying the community speed watch team onto Fields Road, to collate date and evidence that there was an issue, which could then be passed onto Cheshire Police to act upon.

Cllr Derek Hough, who also attended a site visit with residents alongside Cllrs Unett and Buckley, labelled the situation a potential "disaster".

Alsager Town Council agreed to contact Cheshire East's environmental health, highways and planning departments as well as Cheshire Police and the owners of the site Sandyford Properties regarding the ongoing issues local residents are experiencing.

Nub News has contacted Cheshire East and Sandyford Properties for comment.