Irate residents are claiming there is “no sleep in Blackford” due to lorries thundering through the village late at night on their way to a bottling plant.
Scores of villagers are incensed the vehicles are travelling past their homes late at night, travelling to and from the Highland Spring depot, and are demanding a curfew be imposed by Perth and Kinross Council.
Grant Peacock, of Blackford Community Action Group, claims the noise is so bad many houses are “shaking” as the lorries pass their homes and said villagers are suffering sleep deprivation as a result.
He said: “There is basically no sleep in Blackford. I have lived here for 15 years but this is the first time I’ve been woken up through the night and it is awful.
“The future looks grim. This problem has been caused by the incompetence and indifference of the council and the bullying and expansion of Highland Spring to make a small village an industrial site.
“We are asking for a night curfew to let us sleep and ultimately a slip road of sorts to allow lorries to by-pass Blackford as we are being shaken apart by the huge lorries.
“We have been through the complaints process and have been told offhandedly by council chiefs that there is no recourse for noise or vibration from lorries.”
Mr Peacock said Perth and Kinross Council put a curfew on the site and stated it was not to have lorry deliveries take place between the hours of 7pm and 7am.
“There is a planning application for a railway siding which will allow another increase in productivity but it will increase the number of lorries,” he added.
“The new site productivity means that Highland Spring has moved to a 24/7 shift pattern and lorries deliver night and day. Their lorries just deliver to the old site which has no restriction or curfew times and move the material through, so the curfew on the new site was for show and pointless.
“The council have no answers to villagers as to why they all played this charade. Pressure over the last few years has meant the Highland Spring has said they have money to help build a slip road.”
A spokesperson for Highland Spring said: “In order to reduce the number of vehicle movements through the village overnight we are about to invest in additional on-site trailer parking.
“We can confirm that we are in conversations with Perth and Kinross Council and Transport Scotland around additional measures of support for the community, one of which is exploring whether the east slip road from the village could be made into a two-way road with a left hand turn off the A9 Perth to Stirling road.
“These are still under council consideration so we can’t comment more on progress at this time. However, we can confirm that Highland Spring have offered financial support to make this possible and are awaiting a formal response to this offer.
“We work to support local residents wherever possible and have an open and on-going dialogue with Blackford Community Council to listen and respond directly to concerns.”
A council spokesman said: “Perth and Kinross Council is aware of the concerns of residents regarding noise nuisance and has been in dialogue with Highland Spring and Transport Scotland to discuss local peoples’ views and possible solutions, and this dialogue is continuing. Results from a traffic survey on Moray Street from September 2017 show that only 2.2% of the total weekly traffic travel between midnight and 6am.
“We continue to work with Highland Spring to reduce night time movements of HGVs until a more permanent solution is found.”
