A raging resident has slammed a building site opposite his home for spewing out dust onto his East Craig property. James Elder says he can hear the sounds of construction quite clearly from his home all day long and dust from the West Craig site constantly settles on cars around the neighbourhood.
“One of my neighbours washes his car daily and complains bitterly about the dust,” said Mr Elder. “It’s not about the cars as such for me, but this is what we’re breathing every day.”
Mr Elder retired to East Craigs with more than 50 years of construction and quarry experience. He claimed developers have been crushing stones on site for months. In addition, he has measured construction noise at 80 decibels from his home.
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“There is definitely a quality-of-life impact. My wife and I filter the air in our house to keep dust out,” he said. “I think everyone realises we have to build new houses, but we want them to take responsibility for the way it impacts the lives of current residents.”
Mr Elder, now in his 80s, described the West Craigs site as "geologically complex" with a mix of whinstone and volcanic rock as well as boulders ranging from the size of someone’s head to the size of a small car. “Developers have two ways of dealing with these stones: crush them or remove them. The problem is that crushing them creates a fine dust which is quite harmful,” said Mr Elder.
The West Craigs development, which is west of Maybury Road, is operated by Taylor Wimpey PLC, one of the largest home construction companies in the UK. Development has been ongoing since last year to build 250 new homes.
A spokesperson for Taylor Wimpey confirmed that stones were crushed on site at a rate of approximately 2,000 tonnes of rock per week. However, the firm said the programme of rock crushing only ran from February 2022 until May 2022.
The company also claimed that active noise and dust mitigation measures are in place, which include protection mounds to capture dust, plastic curtains on plant used to crush material to catch dust and water spraying to minimise dust in the air.
“Earlier this year, we responded to concerns raised by a group of local residents in relation to dust and rock crushing at our West Craigs development in Edinburgh,” a spokesperson for Taylor Wimpey East Scotland said. “Health and safety is our number one priority and as a responsible homebuilder we engaged with Edinburgh City Council’s Environmental Health department for them to inspect the noise and dust mitigation measures that were in place at that time.
"These measures were fully supported, and an update was provided to the group of local residents. We can confirm this programme of rock crushing work was completed in May this year.”
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