{"id":180650,"date":"2023-10-08T08:35:20","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T08:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotworldreport.com\/?p=180650"},"modified":"2023-10-08T08:35:20","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T08:35:20","slug":"our-idyllic-rural-hamlet-has-been-turned-into-an-industrial-car-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotworldreport.com\/world-news\/our-idyllic-rural-hamlet-has-been-turned-into-an-industrial-car-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Our idyllic rural hamlet has been turned into an industrial car park"},"content":{"rendered":"
An idyllic rural hamlet has been turned into a industrial parking lot for rusty trucks – as helpless residents say their lives have been ‘ruined’ after a garage started using their street as a ‘lorry car park’.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Homeowners have seen their lives torn apart since\u00a0A & S Motors moved in last year, filling their quiet homes in the South Downs National Park with ‘unbearable’ fumes and loud noises.<\/p>\n
And a constant stream of coaches and lorries coming and going has turned their ‘pretty little hamlet’ in Crockerhill, near Chichester, West Sussex, into a crashing hellscape.<\/p>\n
However, the owner of the garage in the hamlet in Crockerhill has fought back arguing said it has ‘always’ been used as a lorry repair station and an ex-manager at the\u00a0vehicle repair company claimed his workers had been ‘harassed’ by neighbours.<\/p>\n
Overspill from commercial vehicle repair company A & S Motors has ‘made life awful’ since they took over the garage in March 2022, according to residents.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An\u00a0idyllic rural hamlet has been turned into a industrial parking lot for rusty trucks<\/p>\n
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Helpless residents say their lives have been ‘ruined’ after a garage started using their street as a ‘lorry car park’<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
They say\u00a0their quiet homes in the South Downs National Park have been filled with ‘unbearable’ fumes and loud noises<\/p>\n
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Christopher Napier-Raikes and his wife, Jill, live opposite the ‘lorry car park’ which used to be a quiet petrol pump garage<\/p>\n
Incensed locals say they now fear the situation may only change if a resident dies after the vehicles block emergency services from reaching them.<\/p>\n
Homeowners claim a line of coaches is often parked on the slip-road off the busy A27 is an ‘accident waiting to happen’.<\/p>\n
But even after involving Sussex Police and complaining to the local authority, the Environment Agency and the local MP nothing has changed after 15 months, residents say.<\/p>\n
Christopher Napier-Raikes and his wife, Jill, live opposite the ‘lorry car park’ which used to be a quiet petrol pump garage.<\/p>\n
They used to be able to enjoy the pub opposite before it closed and their road became swamped with school buses, horse boxes and refrigerated lorries in need of repair.<\/p>\n
Now their mornings have been taken over by the sound of pneumatic drills and ‘great big lorries’ at all times of day.<\/p>\n
Up to five big coaches are often parked on the slip road off the 60mph A27, which they describe as an ‘accident waiting to happen’.<\/p>\n
Retired building contractor Mr Napier-Raikes, 85, said: ‘It’s a little hamlet here. Seven of the nine properties are Grade II listed.<\/p>\n
‘It’s a public highway – although I know the road doesn’t go anywhere and it’s being used for obsolete coaches. It’s totally unsafe.’<\/p>\n
Mrs Napier-Raikes, 84, added: ‘On a very bad day, we have started calling it musical lorries.<\/p>\n
‘There is continual movement going on, with coaches being moved out. We quite often have to close our windows because the smell is quite terrible.’<\/p>\n
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Up to five big coaches are often parked on the slip road off the 60mph A27<\/p>\n
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Vehicles parked near the business in Crockerhill near Boxgrove in Chichester, West Sussex<\/p>\n
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Incensed locals say they now fear the situation may only change if vehicles which block emergency service access result in a resident’s ‘death<\/p>\n
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Overspill from commercial vehicle repair company A & S motors has ‘made life awful’ since they took over the garage in March 2022<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The dispute has caused a state of civil war on the quiet hamlet<\/p>\n
Mr Napier-Raikes said the vehicles’ engines can be running for up to 20 minutes which he finds ‘quite disturbing’.<\/p>\n
‘This should all be done on an industrial estate really,’ he added.<\/p>\n
‘It’s not what you would call part of country life.’<\/p>\n
As a result, the couple, who share 13 grandchildren, said they are often forced to retreat from the front garden of their characterful home to the back to enjoy the sunshine.<\/p>\n
On their bid to force change, he added: ‘We’ve had responses from everybody we’ve spoken to but it just gets passed down the line.<\/p>\n
‘I think everybody is hoping it will go away.’<\/p>\n
Despite the disturbance, the pair are adamant they won’t leave the home which they refurbished after buying it in a ‘practically derelict’ state.<\/p>\n
Mr Napier-Raikes said there had always been a ‘village type of life’, adding: ‘The pub was there, the garage was there – but we didn’t know it was going to turn into this.<\/p>\n
‘It’s not right for the people who live here – they’re not operating properly.’<\/p>\n
His wife claimed ‘unbearable fumes’ and oil left everywhere have affected the area, adding: ‘It was a lovely spot.<\/p>\n
‘But you couldn’t open a pub now, with all this going on.<\/p>\n
‘The worst thing is the noise and the destruction of a very pretty little hamlet due to the amount of vehicles and, the fact it’s lorries and their fumes. It’s been turned into a lorry car park. It’s made life awful.’<\/p>\n
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Residents fear that the increased number of vehicles on the road will cause problems\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Boxgrove Parish Council chairman Henry Potter (left), agrees with\u00a0Christopher Napier-Raikes (right)<\/p>\n
Jean Whiting, 80, lives nearby and says she has been made to feel ‘vulnerable’ as an elderly woman living on her own.<\/p>\n
The retired nurse moved to the area eight years ago and said it used to be ‘nice’ to visit her neighbours, before the infiltration of big commercial vehicles.<\/p>\n
‘I do feel vulnerable living by myself,’ she said.<\/p>\n
‘The biggest thing is the movement when they are working there.’<\/p>\n
Crockerhill lies between Tangmere and Fontwell on the A27, and is in the civil parish of Boxgrove – best known for a Lower Paleolithic site where ancient flint tools and animal remains have been unearthed by archeologists.<\/p>\n
Boxgrove Parish Council chairman Henry Potter, who has lived in the village for 28 years, said the lives of residents were being ‘ruined’.<\/p>\n
The ‘trouble’ even infiltrated the latest parish council meeting when a row broke out as one of the garage bosses attended.<\/p>\n
Mr Potter, 82, said: ‘They have made no effort to regulate their behaviour and make lives a bit comfier for people who live there.<\/p>\n
‘The situation has just got worse and worse.’<\/p>\n
Another concerned local – part of the group that owns the Winterton Arms – has seen plans to re-open the pub delayed.<\/p>\n
‘People are so upset because the disruption happens every day,’ he said.<\/p>\n
‘But when we complain we’ve been passed from pillar to post, from department to department – nobody ever does anything.<\/p>\n
‘We get told it’s someone else’s issue.<\/p>\n
‘It’s awful, it really is. It’s not right for people in their late 80s, who are upstanding citizens.<\/p>\n
‘It’s not a joke, but a death would move it on. It would be better if they did it before that.’<\/p>\n
The owner of the garage in the hamlet in Crockerhill said it has ‘always’ been used as a lorry repair station.<\/p>\n
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The ‘trouble’ even infiltrated the latest parish council meeting when a row broke out as one of the garage bosses attended<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The owner of the garage in the hamlet in Crockerhill said it has ‘always’ been used as a lorry repair station<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A former director for A & S Coach and Commercial repairs, said the garage and workers had been ‘harassed’ by neighbours<\/p>\n
John Lloyd has been the freeholder of the property for nearly 50 years and said local authorities would have intervened if A & S Coach and Commercial Repairs had been doing anything wrong.<\/p>\n
Speaking at his \u00a31.7m home in Chichester, West Sussex, the 77 year old said: “It’s always been a lorry repair shop.<\/p>\n
“Perhaps because they have their own coaches it’s taking up more space.<\/p>\n
“If they’re doing something legally wrong the relevant authority will stop them.”<\/p>\n
Martin Herbert, who said he has now handed in his resignation as a company director for A & S Coach and Commercial repairs, said the garage and workers had been ‘harassed’ by neighbours.<\/p>\n
Asking for his comments not to be published, he added: “The police have told us they can’t see we are doing anything wrong, we’re just trying to run a business.<\/p>\n
“The garage has been here for 50 years.<\/p>\n
“It’s not as if we’ve rented a unit and started doing repairs – it’s an established business.”<\/p>\n