RESIDENTS are 'furious' after a development company breached a planning condition to gain entry to a site.

Oakmere Homes brought anger to the residents of Monument Way and Sir John Barrow Way in Ulverston when they drove large construction vehicles up through their streets earlier this week to gain access to the Lund Farm development.

Despite the company's claims that they did inform residents of the work, and that they had made contact with South Lakeland District Council, an SLDC spokesman has confirmed that the actions of the company went against planning restrictions.

One resident on Monument Way, Alan Brenton, said: “As anticipated throughout the planning process, Oakmere Homes have progressed with accessing the site through the existing estate at 7.30am in complete contravention of item six in their planning consent.

“They were reminded, as was the planning officer, of their responsibilities and their duty to comply last week. They have continued with utter disregard for the planning process and lack of respect for the local community and the planning authority. My question is simple; is there any intent to uphold the planning decision and enforce the restriction, or does the developer have carte blanche to do exactly as they wish?”

Councillors Dave Webster (Ulverston Mayor) and Mark Wilson have also shown their support for the residents.

“They are furious and who can blame them” said Cllr Webster. “It is totally wrong what they have done as according to planning restrictions nothing was supposed to go up Sir John Barrow Way.”

Cllr Wilson added: “Residents are quite rightly asking what’s the use in planning if companies like this can just cut through everything.”

A spokesperson for SLDC said: “We can confirm that a current condition of the planning consent for this development is that construction vehicles should not use this route to access the site.

“We have contacted the developer to remind them of the condition and we have instructed them to use the agreed access route to the development site that does not involve construction vehicles using Sir John Barrow Way.

“If they fail to adhere to this condition we will consider formal enforcement proceedings, which could ultimately result in the developer facing prosecution.’’

Mark Wilkinson, operations director for Oakmere Homes said in response: “This is the formal response they have to give and is currently correct, but I can assure you they knew what we were doing as we notified them along with the residents, but would remind them all that this work was for the Lund Hall residents' access - not for site access.”