Unbe-leaf-able noise as neighbours awoken by retail park leaf blowers at 5.30am

Furious residents living near a retail park said they were being awoken at 5.30am by the sound of leaf blowers clearing up outside shops. The daily din was said to have lasted for around an hour over the past fortnight, affecting homes near Elgar Retail Park in Worcester.

There was also anger over claims workers were simply shifting the leaves from the park into surrounding streets, leaving them to be cleared up at public expense. Councillors demanded action be taken against park bosses after receiving complaints.

Labour councillor Jill Desayrah, representing Warndon and Elbury Park, slammed the practice as akin to "fly-tipping on council property". She said: "This is private land and they have a responsibility to get rid of the leaves in the proper way, not dump them on public land.

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"Leaf blowers are very noisy. Residents feel they don't matter, that they are 'collateral damage'. It's a common problem. This is not the first example of the retail park being inconsiderate to residents."

"In the summer we had a problem with them resurfacing right through the night. It's the litter too. When KFC opened they were subject to a litter picking order which they did for six months and now they don't.

"People are fed up with the retail park as a neighbour. Everyone is happy with it in principle. But they want to do their work as cheaply as possible. They're then dumping their leaves onto public space."

"The city council aren't happy either and will be sending enforcement officers. It shouldn't be the council responsibility, but when it ends up on the highway it's left to them to pick it up."

"We'd like them to behave like good neighbours. Do what you need to do, collect it and take it to the dump." The retail park, which houses major outlets such as KFC, Costa, and Argos, falls under the management of Legal & General.

Coun Desayrah has taken the issue to Worcestershire Regulatory Services, insisting there should be "some proper sanction". She said: "Legal & General are passing out work to sub-contractors who don't care about the residents."

"It's like them having the resurfacing work all over again. It is waking residents up."

A resident voiced concerns the fallen leaves might clog drains, worsening flooding in an area already vulnerable to waterlogging. Another claimed: "They just blast the leaves into the road and drains and then consider it job done as the retail park is clear of leaves.

"But the times they are doing it is really unsociable too. There are families with young kids living nearby as well as pensioners. It's not on."

Warndon and Elbury Park Labour councillor Ed Kimberley confirmed he has discussed this issue with residents, saying: "As long as it's profitable for big companies to behave badly, they're going to behave badly. All we want is for them to be good neighbours.

"It's not the first time the park has been a bad neighbour. I hope it will be the last but I'm not very hopeful about it."

A spokesperson for Legal and General said: "We are concerned to learn about the disturbance to residents living near Elgar Retail Park. We've raised this with our managing agents as a priority to ensure there is no further disruption to residents.

"We do not condone operating at unsocial hours, and apologise for any inconvenience caused by this."