Residents in row with Iceland in Morecambe over early morning noisy deliveries

A resident of Central Drive in Morecambe, which is directly opposite Iceland’s loading bay, Nigel Gibson, said: “Myself and my neighbours at Central Heights and numbers 8a, 12, 14, 16 and 18 Central Drive are disturbed by the early morning activities of Iceland in the Arndale Centre.

“The main problem relates to consistent noise which emanates from the slamming of van doors and unloading/loading of plastic crates for deliveries to customer homes - the unloading emanates from the previous day’s empty crates and the loading of deliveries to customers which commence from 6am.

“I have noted down details of the times when activities commence, which has been ongoing since late last year.

“The list was commenced when we were awoken by a senior member of staff pushing out trolleys of cardboard and plastic at 4.45am on January 23 2021.

“Some 10 years ago the area experienced similar issues with the arrival of trunk motors and those of other suppliers who appeared from 5am onwards to unload.

“There is an agreement between retailers where it impacts with residents that there is to be no activity before 7am.

“In view of this, notices were affixed to the fences and the retail outlets along that area were advised by Environmental Health Services to delay their activities until 7am.

“The only thing environmental health have pointed out is that the government have relaxed some of the delivery times due to Covid, but to me that doesn’t carry any weight.

“Some of the current staff members at Iceland Morecambe have habitually ignored this notice and again we have all been awoken, by staff, sometimes as early as

4.40am when they have needlessly opened a very noisy gate to the full extent.

“We find this behaviour, to be not really acceptable particularly when most, if not all of us, are Iceland customers and some of us already have health problems.

“It affects quite a proportion of the residents of Central Drive.

“My wife and I moved back to the north west in 2009 and we needed to live in a town centre.

“My wife is now 77 and I’m 75. She is housebound and not in good health so these early morning deliveries and loading vans for customers are a bit of a nuisance to say the least.

“It has an impact on other elderly people, people who work nights and people who have families. It’s across the board.

“It is a disgrace, we are totally fed up and it is becoming a nightmare.

“My body is well adjusted to Iceland time and I usually get out of bed at 5am.

“I still work as an accountant four hours a day at home, and I also have to do a lot of things outside the house and for my wife.

“We just want to get back to normality.”

A spokesman for Lancaster City Council said: “Mr Gibson’s complaint relates to two separate elements, the first of which is deliveries to the store.

“Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the Government relaxed restrictions on store delivery times to ensure shops and supermarkets were able to stay fully stocked.

“This relaxation has been extended to the end of January 2022 as the industry is currently experiencing a shortage of HGV drivers, but we have been advised that deliveries to the store will only take place from 8am onwards.

“The second element to Mr Gibson’s complaint relates to home deliveries, with vans being loaded at the store. The council’s environmental health team is currently investigating the issue and is in contact with the company.”

Iceland declined to comment.