ANGRY residents have slammed plans for an elevated car park for the guided busway which they claim will overlook their homes.

The car park in East Bond Street, Leigh, will be for commuters using the controversial guided bus way and will hold over a hundred cars.

But residents in neighbouring Padiham Close, Guest Street and Pownall Street say that the eyesore car park will cause noise and pollution which will de-value their houses. they also say car headlights will shine directly into their bedrooms.

There are also concerns about a perceived lack of consultation about the car park, with residents claiming they only discovered the extent of it after acquiring site plans from contractor Balfour Beatty and after seeing large concrete slabs being erected.

Steve Kelly, aged 61, who has lived in Padiham Close for 14 years with his wife said: “We knew that there was going to be a car park but we had no idea of the extent of it until we saw the plans, this is for 400 plus cars. There was a lorry park there before but that wasn’t three metres high or in open view of houses.

He added: “This stretches right down past Pownall Street. In winter we are going to be having lights from about 5am streaming into the houses and car doors slamming which are going to disturb children, and then the same again at night. We are outraged.”

Transport for Greater Manchester have reassured residents that the car park, which they say will be for 130 cars with nine disabled spaces, will be at the same level as the lorry park and that height barriers of 2.1 metres will restrict the chances of their properties being overlooked.

But fellow Padiham Close resident Tracey Burton said it has all been kept “very much under the radar”.

Mrs Burton said: “We saw big concrete wall breeze blocks going up and we thought it was a supporting wall but the car park is going to go on top of it. The issue we have got is the fact that it is elevated, the car lights will shine in to our bedroom windows. It has upset us all-—it will dramatically de-value our houses there is no question about that and the pollution aspect and noise is a big concern.

“We’ve been looking through the consultation documents and we can’t find any reference to a car park, it has been kept very much under the radar.”

In a meeting held on Tuesday night, Padiham Close residents met with Luke Ellis, project manager for Transport for Greater Manchester.

In the meeting residents stressed that they were not an “Anti bus-way Lobby Group” and that all they wanted were remedies to address their issues including adequate screening from the effects of the elevated car park and/or moving the car park back to as the original lorry site was.