Kidderminster residents frustrated by 'awful' dust (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Kidderminster residents frustrated by 'awful' dust

5:00pm Wednesday 6th March 2013 in News By William Tomaney

RESIDENTS near to Kidderminster’s former British Sugar site have spent the past week sweeping fine sand off their drives, cars and windows.

It is believed fine soil from the Stourport Road site, currently being redeveloped, got into the air following a dry spell of weather.

The hazy dust-like material could be seen in the air with small layers of it on cars across Kidderminster this week.

Residents of neighbouring houses told The Shuttle they could not open their windows for fear of the sand covering their property.

A spokesman for DSM Demolition Group, which is working on the site, said the company had employed a mechanical road sweeper to help tackle the problem.

Gary Cull, who lives opposite the site, said: “It is awful. The builders are moving a load of sand around but it is blowing the dust across the road and all the cars and houses are covered in dust.

“If you left your window open it would get dust in the house.”

A Clee Avenue resident, who did not want to be named, said her husband had washed his car twice in the last week because of the layer of sand.

“We know they have got to do what they have got to do,” she added. “But someone could have warned us about this dust – it’s dreadful.”

Billy Young, DSM contracts manager, said: “Because the weather has dried up over the past couple of days we have a problem with the fine dust drying out and the material has become airborne.

“We have employed a mechanical road sweep, sweeping the site itself, preventing the blow-off and sweeping the roads as well.”

The development, which will include the Hoobrook Link Road, will open up 24 hectares of land on the British Sugar site.

It could create more than 400 jobs and would see the redundant 74-acre site in Kidderminster changed into a residential, employment, leisure and retail area.