UNDER-FIRE building firm Lovell has submitted a new application to change the conditions of its 'traffic management plan' for its Granville Street, Skipton, homes site.

But residents say they fear that Lovell will not adhere to any new conditions that are granted by Craven District Council planning chiefs.

Several householders near the site have said that, while they have no objection in principle to the company's request, it "cannot be trusted to stick to the new plan".

One resident, who asked not to be named, said: "Lovell has not shown in the past that it will adhere to instructions to keep noise and disturbance to a minimum - ever since the construction work started our lives have been made a misery."

Lovell is building 57 new houses on the site of former Craven District Council offices.

The new application asks for permission to use a holding site for lorries and workers' parking at Britannia Willis near the Skipton bypass and Lovell wants to employ a second 'banksman' - to manage traffic and deliveries- at the site.

Another resident responded to the application on Craven District Council's planning applications website by saying: "I see no compelling reason to grant this application, which will make no improvement to amenity or highway safety if the applicant does not comply fully with its conditions."

The consultation period ends on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Lovell regional director Simon Medler has contacted residents with an offer of a meeting to discuss the noise and disturbance issues they have previously raised.

But residents have rejected the chance. In a letter to Mr Medler, one of the residents, Rob Hawley, replied: "We residents have come to regard such meetings as serving no purpose other than as window-dressing for Lovell."

Mr Medler said: "“We are striving to do all we can to improve the situation near the Granville Street development and are extremely sorry for any continuing problems. As part of this, we have submitted a revised traffic management plan to the council for approval. This includes the introduction of a member of staff to manage traffic at the Granville Street site entrance (in addition to the worker who manages traffic at the Brook Street and Gargrave Road / Park Avenue junction). We have also established off-site parking for our workers at a separate location as well as making it very clear to our site workers that they should not be parking in the streets near the site. We have also contacted our suppliers and subcontractors to ensure they understand that they must comply with the traffic management arrangements at the site.

“These arrangements include that all vehicles delivering to the site must contact the site before they approach it so that we can closely control the movement of vehicles in and out of the site. I would again like to apologise to residents and emphasise that we are very keen to work with them to improve things. We have offered to meet with residents and I would be happy to arrange a meeting to discuss their concerns and explore other possible measures that could be introduced.”