CHILDREN living in a Woodley housing block have been struggling with respiratory issues after moving in five years ago.
Families at Lilly May Court believe that living next to multiple haulage yards without appropriate ventilation systems in the property has left their children with asthma.
Elise Maslen moved into the property in 2017 with her husband Kai Meade and their three-year-old son Archie.
After three years, Archie was diagnosed with asthma and given an inhaler.
“I noticed that he had developed a cough for a while,” said Mr Meade.
Mrs Maslen added: “At that point, I didn’t know that other residents’ children had been prescribed inhalers as well.”
The couple believe that this respiratory condition is a result of breathing in pollution from the neighbouring yards, due to correlations they have observed.
“In the warmer months, we open the window to let the air in,” Mrs Maslen explained. “I noticed black dust coming in through the open windows and settling on the white windowsill. It’s coming into the property and it’s airborne.”
This dust was also spotted by other residents.
“When we had the windows open, Archie would cough,” Mrs Maslen said. “And when it got colder and the windows were closed, the cough would go away.”
Hauliers
Mrs Maslen explained that her family have no ill-feeling towards the haulage companies, but believe that homes should not have been built in such close proximity to them.
Jeff Cahill, owner of BDT Haulage Services, said that he opposed plans to build residential properties next to existing hauliers.
His company sits around 100 metres west of Lilly May Court, and is one of many companies based at the industrial estate off Headley Road East.
“I was upset when they built that development,” he said. “I have helped these people as best I can.”
Mr Cahill said that the majority of lorries on the site are Euro Six, which produce the “cleanest diesel emissions”.
He said that it was “unlikely” that emissions from these trucks were causing asthma in the children, but said that it could have been dust from the site, or emissions from forklifts.
He said that when planning the site, it would have been better to build in a “drop-zone” for the dust, rather than building homes along the site border.
Planning conditions
As part of the planning conditions set out in 2015, alternative ventilation measures were agreed by Wokingham Borough Council so that windows could be kept closed to limit noise pollution. But these were never installed.
“I know [the pollution] is damaging my child’s lungs, which is why we are all so angry about this,” she added.
Mr Meade said that he is still worried about Archie’s health.
“I know this is having an impact on us mentally,” he said. “We’re scared our son will develop more symptoms.”
“We don’t know what we are breathing in,” Mrs Maslen added. “We put our son in this situation, and we can’t move away.”
Carbon monoxide in pregnant women
They are not the only family to feel concerned about their children’s health.
Damaris Sende and her family of four are also scared about the impact pollution could be having on their lungs.
While pregnant with her now 19-month-old son, Mrs Sende was found to have higher than normal levels of carbon monoxide in her blood.
“In the routine check-ups, they asked me to blow into this instrument, and said that I had quite dangerous levels in my body,” she said.
“They asked if we travelled to the appointment by car, and if it had any faults, as high carbon monoxide is usually linked to fumes.”
The pollutant can stop oxygen from reaching vital organs, and stop infants from getting enough oxygen to grow during a pregnancy.
Mrs Sende said that she recorded nine parts per million of carbon monoxide in her breath, a level usually found in smokers.
“It was really alarming, knowing this was going into my child’s lungs,” she said.
Charlotte Cummings, who was pregnant at the same time as Mrs Sende, also had the same experience at a routine check-up.
She recorded six parts per million of carbon monoxide in her breath, and said that was told by her nurse it was the equivalent of smoking 20 to 30 cigarettes each day.
“I was horrified at that,” she said.
After her check-up, Mrs Sende’s doctor at Woodley Surgery wrote a letter over concerns about the proximity of the homes to the haulage companies.
Within a year of Mrs Sende’s son being born, he was given an inhaler.
“He is wheezing everyday and hasn’t gone two weeks in his life without a cough,” she said.
Mrs Sende said that she and her husband had hoped to expand their family, but feel unable to do so while living in Lilly May Court.
Moving on
They had previously been “on the cusp of moving out” but the sale fell through because the borough council confirmed in writing that the homes had been built in a breach of planning conditions, due to the lack of alternative ventilation and specialist glazing.
“I feel trapped,” she said.
Mrs Cummings was able to move out of the property with her husband and two children last summer due to help from her parents.
However they are still paying the mortgage at Lilly May Court.
She said that her three-year-old daughter Rosie had developed a cough “she couldn’t shake” while living at the property, and was prescribed an inhaler.
“We’ve not had to use Rosie’s inhaler once since we moved out,” she said.
Her toddler, who is a similar age to Mrs Sende’s son, has not had any health issues.
“My heart breaks for Damaris,” she said. “That could have been us too.”
Making good
Wokingham Borough Council’s housing executive, Cllr John Kaiser, has said that the developer, Bloor Homes, is now in a place to retrospectively install the ventilation measures.
A Housing Solutions spokesperson said that they have been working with the residents to facilitate this.
However Mrs Maslen and Mr Meade said that they never would have purchased the property from Housing Solutions under shared ownership if they had been made aware of the yards and potential for pollution when paying their deposit.
They do not want the measures installed, but instead for Housing Solutions to buy back the homes.
The couple said that they bought of plan and were not told about the yards until later down the line.
Under the planning permission granted in 2015, the developer confirmed that prospective purchasers would be made fully aware of the haulage yards next door.
Meeting minutes detailed that “the applicant has agreed to have this as a covenant put on the deeds, and in this way, it will be raised as an issue each time there is a change of ownership. This will be secured by way of a legal agreement.”
A spokesperson for Housing Solutions said: “As purchasers, the residents would have been aware of the yard itself as well as the planning conditions that had been imposed by the local authority through the legal information supplied during the conveyancing process.
“The existence and location of the haulage yard would also be obvious on any viewing.”
Speaking in a meeting last month, Cllr Shirley Boyt, Labour councillor for Bulmershe and Whitegates, said that a covenant regarding the yard and the mitigation — which did not exist — wasn’t disclosed at the point of sale.
She has defined point of sale as the payment of a deposit.
“The majority of residents would never have bought into these properties had they been given the full facts at the point of sale and have requested
the properties are bought back by the provider, who has refused,” Cllr Boyt said in the meeting.
She wanted to know if the borough council could do anything to encourage Housing Solutions to buy back the flats from the shared owners.
Cllr Kaiser said that it would not “be appropriate for the council to interfere with the contractual position between the residents and the Housing Association”.
Mr Meade said that his family are unable to sell their home, and that the “value has diminished”.
He said: “Out only hope is that Housing Solutions takes back these properties, as we were mis-sold. It would allow us all to move on with our lives.”
Political support
Matt Rodda, Labour MP for Reading East said that he is deeply concerned by the situation.
“The residents have had to suffer dreadful noise and air pollution problems and the housing association does not seem to have listened to their very serious concerns,” he said.
“I am calling on Housing Solutions to completely change its approach and offer residents the fair treatment and financial help they rightly deserve. Housing Solutions should now buy back the flats so that the residents can leave and get on with their lives.”
This call has been echoed by other residents and Cllr Boyt, who has been looking into their concerns.
She said: “Since I became involved, I have been appalled at woefully inadequate response from the organisations whose job it is to protect these residents — Environmental Health, Wokingham Borough Planning, and Housing Solutions.
“The planning process was more concerned with ensuring there would be no complaints about the haulage companies rather than the impact of this activity on the health of future occupants.
“From 2018 onwards, countless complaints to Environmental Health and Housing Solutions about health issues caused by intolerable noise and poor air quality were ignored and residents were even told by the housing association, that they must keep their windows closed and not complain.”
She first visited the site in 2020, and said that on arrival, she could “taste the fumes” in the air.
“I knew that I was breathing in something horrible,” she said. “I was gobsmacked that anyone in Woodley could be living under such circumstances.”
On her return home, Cllr Boyt spent time looking through the planning documents, and it was then that she discovered mitigation measures were meant to have been installed in the property.
This was in the form of high performance glazing and an internal fan, similar to an extractor fan. The fan was designed to support the windows being closed to limit noise pollution.
After discovering the breach of planning, she reported it to Wokingham Borough Council, but said that she was told that there was no breach.
After pushing some more, she said that officers visited the site and saw the lack of ventilation measures themselves.
Wokingham Borough Council said that a potential breach of planning was first raised in August 2020, and then confirmed in November that year.
Planning enforcement officers, building control and environmental health visited in February last year.
The council did not serve a formal breach of planning notice but called on developer Bloor Homes to retrospectively carry out the work.
A spokesperson for Housing Solutions said that they became aware of the breach “last September”.
They said that an internal fan was included in the plan “to support the windows being kept closed when needed due to noise” and that “the planning conditions were not intended to address air quality at the site”.
They added: “The issue of air quality and, or pollution is not under Housing Solutions’ responsibility or control and the local authority did not impose any conditions on the developer in terms of air quality.
“Irrespective of this, we naturally share our residents’ concerns around the potential impact of the haulage yard on themselves and their families.
“This is why we asked Wokingham Borough Council’s environmental health team to undertake specialist air quality testing in the area.
“We are pleased to see that this is now being undertaken and we very much look forward to receiving the results of those investigations.”
Retrospective installation
The Housing Solutions spokesperson said that they have “made a number of interventions” to try and get the issue resolved for residents.
“We have been in regular, ongoing discussions with the developer, the planners and the environmental health department, alongside residents, to get the measures implemented,” they said.
“Due to these efforts, Bloor Homes has agreed to carry out the work needed at its own cost and we have, since then, been working with the residents to facilitate access to their flats so it can be carried out.
“We have offered support to the residents to remove as much of the inconvenience as possible including offering the services of a professional mediator at our cost to support them in the process.”
They added: “Some of the residents are reluctant to engage with the developer to progress the work that is needed to address the issue of noise.
“We have stood shoulder to shoulder with our residents in our efforts to resolve the situation and we will continue to support the residents affected however we can.”
A spokesperson for Bloor Homes said: “We were made aware of issues at Lilly May Court by Wokingham Borough Council and have been in regular contact with the council in order to resolve the matter.
“Bloor has recently reached an agreement with the council and the owner of Lilly May Court as to the extent of the works, which will require a very short period of access to each individual flat.
“The residents have been informed of the works, which will be carried out shortly at Bloor’s sole cost.”
This was confirmed by the executive member for planning and enforcement at the borough council.
Cllr Wayne Smith said: “We take action to protect people against development when necessary.
“However, enforcement action is slow and is not always the best way to resolve issues. It is often better for the residents if we work will all involved to find a solution.
“We’ll be keeping on top of this issue to make sure the breach of planning is resolved properly.”
LILLY MAY Court was named after a Woodley girl who died in 2014 after collapsing from a cardiac arrest at school.
Her mother, Claire Page, said that she was completely unaware of any issues at the property but found the news very upsetting.
“My heart goes out to all of the families living there,” she said. “After what I’ve been through with Lilly, it’s upsetting to know that children living there are poorly.”
Ms Page said that when she was approached to have the building named after her daughter, she was delighted.
But is now upset about the legacy this leaves.
“The planning breach with no ventilation is really shocking,” she said. “They have been mis-sold.”
Ms Page added: “If there is anything I can do to help, I am happy to.”
