A supermarket has been accused of moving the goalposts by applying to change a prerequisite of its planning permission seven weeks after it opened.
Several residents, including one early and vocal opponent to how Asda has conducted business in Forfar, are disgruntled by what they see as the latest in a line of broken promises.
The firm has lodged an application to vary the loading times by up to six hours in a day, allowing for earlier and later lorry access than what Angus Council agreed to.
The original planning consent restricted lorry movements to between 7.30am and 8pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays.
However, within less than two months of opening for trade, Asda has applied to increase those operating hours from 7am to 11pm, Monday to Saturday.
Among other things, St James Road resident Linda Robbie has been critical of the removal of residential parking spaces and the position of such a large store across the road from a primary school.
She told The Courier: ”Given the council’s position on Asda so far, nothing surprises me about what they do.
”They (the council) have been impotent on this and Forfar Community Council should remove the word ‘community’ from their name, because we haven’t been represented.
”There was an open day (in September) and one of the things discussed was whether there was the promise they wouldn’t increase the number of vehicles. Extending your loading hours seems to suggest that there will be an increase, at least at the very early hours or late at night.”
Previous unpopular passages in the Forfar store’s tale include a water tower being built taller than plans suggested, further restriction of parking on St James Road due to a road layout adjustment and the retention of a wall that has been described as an eyesore.
While several residents in New Road and The Vennel said they were not finding the current noise levels to be more than a slight irritation, they were convinced problems would not present themselves until the summer, with open windows and more time being spent in the garden, later into the day.
One Vennel resident, who asked not to be named, said: ”The noise has actually been the least of my concerns with the store but we don’t know how that’s going to be in the summer.
”The manager has actually been very good with some of my complaints, like late-night rattling from the cages at the back and the removal of a call button where the lorries come in.
”However, the people on the street are not pleased with what they’ve done to the wall and the water tank is far higher than the plans said it would be.”
Neighbours across the junction at Lour Road cited some concerns about reverb affecting their stone-built houses.
Rhona Milne said: ”The wall they’ve kept up from Dons (the former Don & Low textiles factory on which the store stands) seems to be doing a fine job of keeping in most of the noise, but there are times when a lorry’s passing by in a low gear that I can feel it in the wall.”
However, one Vennel resident said: ”We were next to a 24-hour textile operation (at Don & Low) for 25 years, and the hum from that was much worse. When that stopped, the silence was deafening, so you can’t have it both ways.”
Asda’s plans for the site were originally described by councillor Alison Andrews as ”an imaginative and helpful form of progress using a site that is of no benefit to anyone at the moment”.