Overrunning Metro works have left a neighbouring stables “on its knees”, its owner has complained.
Graeme Lamb was forced to vacate a large section of the fields where he grazed his horses last year, when contractors moved onto the site to carry out one of the biggest upgrade projects in the history of the Tyne and Wear Metro. Buckingham Group built their construction compound for the Metro Flow works, a £100m track-dualling scheme that required a three-month line closure, on the land in Wardley Lane, near Hebburn.
Mr Lamb previously rented that plot from South Tyneside Council for his neighbouring Quarry Park Stables, but has since found himself having to close the business because of the disruption. It had been hoped that the engineers would be off the site by the end of March, but Mr Lamb has now been told the remaining works on the Metro line and subsequent restoration of the land will take until July – after which he thinks it could be another two years before it is suitable for grazing again.
