A Blast From The Past And Wholesale Tree Destruction

Well, if I thought I could have a nice peaceful birthday, I can think again. PMB Pallet Express were here all day clearing up the crap they left behind when the building was demolished around it - so ... brrrrm, brrrrm, clatter, clatter.

Funnily enough, I was only saying to the grumpy old man yesterday morning that I really miss them waking me up in the night [such a fib!], but it would take a long time to erase the memory of what they sounded like.

Moments later [literally] Mr Heanor Haulage arrived, closely followed by two PMB lorries. Mr HH says that next week we'll have the pleasure of listening to mountains of muck being shifted over to the railway lines to join the other mountains and are to be flattened, crushing yet more trees [not his exact words, but I'm sure it's what he meant].

According to the 'Ecological Appraisal' done at the time of Asda's and Heanor Haulage's proposals, 'the only area of any ecological value was along the railway track outside the development site, this area is walled off from the site and is not affected by the proposal'.

Should Asda really be chucking their building/demolition waste over the fence when they're trying to aid Langley Mill to become more environmentally friendly?

Anyway since the plans were passed the boundaries have become somewhat blurred - with the purchases of certain bits of railway land - so I think we can safely say goodbye to these areas of ecological value ...

The Eyesore

I'm referring to the lamppost opposite - the top light on the post works OK but is no longer necessary as it was to light up the bridge steps, whereas the bottom one [in the photo] hasn't worked since E.on fiddled with it a year ago. Of course with Asda's ultra-bright security lights, everywhere is lit up. In fact we no longer need electricity in our bedroom but I really must invest in something to block out the light, I keep waking thinking it's time to get up!

Now that we're all smartened up with a wooden fence and plants - yes, maybe the houses do spoil Asda's view of Bridge Street, but tough, we're staying - this street light is an incongruous mess. It's mottled green, having been painted years ago by the Groundwork crew to match the mural on the side of the bridge steps.

The lamppost is actually on the road, not the pavement, so not the best place for it - no the road hasn't been widened before you ask, it was always on the road but now the bridge extension has gone, it's in the way. It's covered in electrical tie-wraps to keep essentials fastened on, rusted at the bottom, albeit not rusty enough to fall over when I witnessed someone leaning heavily against it [note to friend - push harder].

We contemplated bribing a nice man with his digger to knock it over by accident whilst he was removing the temporary ramp next to it, but tut, he was way beyond careful.

The planting is now complete right up to the fence, so there's no immediate need for me to go out armed with spade and my own trees - shame, I was looking forward to that.

I'm not even going to mention the mess that is 'security fenced' off at the top of the street - oh, what? I did mention it, well it was only a teeny weeny little gripe. We can see the security man's kennel little shed from here, ahh, bless, and lots of old PMB Pallet Express mess.

The detailed plans haven't gone in yet for the new housing on Heanor Haulage's land - I don't mean the outline plans that were passed at the same time as the Asda store - but as soon as they do I'll be having a nosy [and no doubt a little moan].

There's still quite a lot of HH's crap to be moved before anything much can be done. Every so often they come and rearrange the odd scrappy bit of metal with their crane and then re-park it behind our house, possibly to annoy me [so my neighbour thinks], but as I've not been at home most of the summer I'm pleased to say that this would have been a wasted exercise ...

Heanor Tyres Has Left The Building

Sorry about the poor quality photo, I was using the MWg zinc ii - not known for its photographic qualities.

I know a lot of my friends were interested to know where Heanor Tyres were going as they use their services.

Being a lovely grumpy person in a fairly good mood - PMB Pallet Express don't keep me awake at the weekend - I thought I’d tell anyone who's interested. As you can see they haven't gone far. Boundary Lane is just before you get to the petrol station.

I wish them good luck in their new place - yes I am being sincere, my problem has never been with them because I'm a NIMBY and a NIMFY and Heanor Tyres were neither in my back or front yard - unlike some real pains in the a**e ...

Y-a-w-n

I've not got much to say today as I'm just sooooo tired. The t*****s in Heanor Haulage's buildings even managed to wake the grumpy old man last night - without me poking him in the ribs and saying 'they're working again'.

It's not just the waking us to listen to them for half an hour at a time, it's the other two hours I'm still awake after they're done just hoping to get back to sleep before they start again. I'll be so glad when they've gone, then I promise I'll find something else to moan about, I'll have to because this diary is getting to be the same every day, it's even boring me ...

1. PMB woke me at 12.38
2. PMB woke me at 1.42
3. PMB woke me at 3.36
4. PMB woke me at 5.25
5. PMB woke me at 8.20 - Yes I know I should be wide awake, alert and bouncing out of my bed ready to work but I'm so tired by now that I just want to sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
   

Now which cupboard did I put my petrol bombs in? ...

Things Must Be Moving

We had an unbelievably quiet evening regards PMB Pallet Express, of course my grumpy old man issued one of his usual statements that perhaps they’ve ‘left the building’. We should be so lucky.
After our strangely quiet [and irritating - nothing to moan about] evening we went to bed and I read for a while as is my wont [Barry Trotter and the shameless parody]. PMB didn’t start being noisy at 12.30 nor again at 1.35 [I woke up then because I'm so used to being woken by them around this time].

3.36am - brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm [forklift going a long way], then again at 5.25. Oh bugger, they’re still here. My latest theory is that they’ve half-flitted so not having any more deliveries but are still distributing from here - well they’ve got to go sometime, somehow. This theory will undoubtedly be proved wrong tonight.
The latest rumour is that the buildings have got to be empty by the end of this month, not March as I said the other day. But - ahem, that rumour is from HH themselves [as well as the one about them going completely and not having a workshop and offices here] so it can't be true.

Just had it confirmed [4.30pm] that the above rumour about HH buildings being emptied by the end of this month is rubbish - as I thought. I'm reserving judgement on the rumour about HH leaving completely, I like that one too much to let go.
This morning a man wearing an ‘rg group’ jacket was taking photo’s of the Heanor Haulage buildings on Bridge Street before going up the bridge. I’ve checked who they are - yes I am nosy - and they specialise in retail construction - with Asda being one of their ‘blue chip’ clients. I didn’t even have to do my best Miss Marple impression to work out that they may in fact be going to build our new Asda - and this theory may be proved wrong at a later date …

Moaning About Noise

I just want to clarify a few matters about my constant moaning about noise.

For whatever reason - holes in the Heanor Haulage buildings [plentiful], acoustics, whatever - it seems noisy in our house without affecting my neighbours over-much.

Slight amendment to the above statement, I was talking to my neighbour today [25.1.10] and she says that she can hear something late in the evening and during the night but didn't realise what it was, she thought it was a compressor and couldn't imagine what they were doing working so late. I told her that it was PMB Pallet Express using their 'ultra-quiet' effin diesel forklifts but with the reversing bleeps turned off - they are switched back on during the day.

I am grumpy, I do like peace and quiet, everyday neighbour noise doesn’t bother me, that’s just part and parcel of terraced housing.

People have asked ‘what about the trains, don’t I hear them?’ …

The simple answer is no ... Unless there are railway workers on the line and the trains have to toot and slow down. Other than that I only hear trains if I’m actively listening for them.

‘What about if I lived near a busy road with constant traffic noise, then I’d have something to moan about’ …

I have lived next to busy roads, the noise becomes a hum that you also don’t hear after a while.

‘Where?’

I used to live at Heanor Conservative club, no double glazing, the end bedroom, right next to the road. After the first week I never heard a thing except the church bells every Sunday morning and Monday night [practice].

Oh, how we hated those bells, apart from them and my constant cough from living with cigarette smoke, the only other worry I had was looking through the bedroom window and seeing our cat sitting in the churchyard watching the traffic [oh dear], knowing she’d got to get back. She always did though, then she went on to live at Underwood Miners Welfare and survived without a scratch until she eventually succumbed to old age [having lived at eight addresses].

I went on to live in a flat at Red Lion Square, Heanor. Again no double glazing, constant traffic, never heard a thing.

So you see the point I’m getting at is ... regular noise - our brains filter out. The irregular noise of a diesel forklift truck - revving up time and again - going backwards and forwards at varying distances, sometimes clattering over a hump] is irregular. It was 00.15am when PMB woke me last night, so then I’m awake ages after they’ve finished their half-hour lorry filling/emptying stint because by then I’m too awake, so I started counting - no not sheep - all the addresses I'd lived at. Then they woke me again at 05.27am. I look and feel like a zombie because of this constant disturbance.

If they weren’t leaving for definite then I’d have filled in several ‘diaries’ for the Environmental health officer - with swearwords - yawn …

My Peace Shattered

It had been lovely and peaceful all last week, No crane playing by Heanor Haulage, very little movement of scrap on the back. I only heard the diesel forklifts in the corrugated tin-pot crappy HH buildings one morning and that could have been HH themselves, but it was in the day time and that's ok. I still didn’t notice any noise coming from PMB Pallet Express yesterday, although we were out a lot of the time. ‘Things are looking up!’ I thought. Later when we went to bed, I mentioned to the grumpy old man that I’d not heard them all evening either.

00.44am BRRRRRRRRM ... BRRRRRRRM ... clatter. ‘Oh I don’t believe this!’ I got out of bed to shut the window, not that it makes much difference. All the while muttering, first under my breath, then gradually increasing the volume ...

‘I’ll just have to suffocate, see if I care. Are you awake? Oi! The t*****rs have just started working’.

His reply - which has remained constant since Asda's planning permission for Langley Mill was passed on the 16th November - was ‘They're probably emptying the building.’

Whereupon my counter reply is always ‘Bo****ks!!’

I will miss them when they’re gone …

Poor Dean Street

I'm glad I don't live on Dean Street. Heanor Haulage's muck and grime is blowing straight down there. It's a lot worse every time a Heanor Haulage lorry whizzes up and down the yard which is fairly frequent. We can't see across to the recreation ground for dust. I'm keeping my fingers crossed the wind doesn't change direction, the air tastes bad enough here as it is.

I'm sure this can't be classed as healthy living - breathing in Heanor Haulage's diesel fumes and the contaminated dust they whip up with their lorries. Oh haven't I mentioned that it's contaminated? Well it is.

At least Dean Street isn't kept awake half the night, first by PMB pallet Express - brrm, brrm clattering - in the very early hours. Then by the wind rattling the crappy squeaky shutters across the road. At least there will be light on the bridge tonight, Bridge Street has been reduced to three street lights all week but the council has been fixing this morning ...

Just a Hobby?

Please note, where I say it's rumour, that is exactly what I mean, I'm not privy to secret information or 'in the know', everything else I write is a fact - from my point of view.


I'm tired & irritable this morning, PMB Pallet Express kept me awake until gone 1.00am, then woke me again at 5.30 & at regular intervals afterwards, I was hoping they'd have bogged off somewhere more suitable by now but with the latest rumours I've heard we might not be getting rid of them after all.

The rumours circulating now are to do with the council [highways - whatever] not being happy with increased traffic that a combination of Asda & Heanor Haulage will cause as Langley Mill just isn't big enough to cope.

Has no-one even considered the traffic to Smiths Flour Mill on Cromford Road? We often can't get in or out of Bridge Street as there are at least 2 lorries queueing up across the bottom of the street waiting to get into Smiths yard. Not all of them Smiths lorries either, I've been told this is because other lorries use their weighbridge.

So if the latest rumours are to be believed, all is not going too well in the Asda/Heanor Haulage camp, we know for a fact that Asda don't really want Heanor Haulage as neighbours - we'd been told this at the very first 'residents exhibition' but Mr HH wouldn't sell his land unless they let him stay. I think I'd like to try something similar when I go to Asda - seeing as they are so reasonable - get to the checkout to pay for my shopping, then say 'I won't buy this shopping unless I can keep my money too'. I like it!

Apparently - another rumour coming up - Mr HH had already sold his businesses elsewhere & needed to keep this bit as a 'hobby', why doesn't he take up bowls or cross stitching as a hobby? But fair enough, he's worked hard & been lucky enough to love his job, let him keep his hobby, but please take it elsewhere.



Heanor Haulage's back yard is a mess at the moment, a little while back it looked like they were clearing it up but there are what look like 'quarry lorries' [or even Terex mining trucks, now I've zoomed in - tut, I'm so nosy] as well as bits of cranes, old boilers, flatbeds & general crap. Oh & the other rumour is back on that HH may just stay on their 'back yard' if they can't find anywhere suitable for the aforementioned crap, lovely ...

Tired

Y-a-w-n ... I'm so tired.

Not only do PMB Pallet Express - in Heanor Haulage's oh so fine, sound-proofed state of the art warehouses [yeh, right] - prevent me from going to bed before midnight because of their constant brrrrrrm, clatter [as the DIESEL forklift truck goes over a hump], brrrrrrm. They've decided that it's a good idea to wake me at 2.29 am to repeat the exercise for half an hour or so. I suppose this does have one benefit, it means that I'm so tired that I didn't wake up for their 5.15 am performance. So PMB, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me have a lie-in ...

Been Out to Avoid Listening to Heanor Haulage

It's a rum do when you can't stay in your own home because of unnecessary noise, we had to go out as I couldn't bear it any longer.

Of course this meant that we missed the man from Environmental Health who called, but I did do some filming on my trusty camera before we went out if he's remotely interested.



We have to put up with that crap from Heanor Haulage every late spring/summer, I don't know why they don't do it on their front yard instead of at the back of us, it's plenty big enough [where Asda hope to go].
Actually I do know why they don't do it on their front yard, it's because it's effin NOISY! & they wouldn't want to disturb the office workers, bugger the nearby residents that Mr Heanor Haulage told my other half years ago that he didn't want to upset, because they planned to be here a long time.

My other half, never giving it a thought, had left the car windows open a little before we decided that we couldn't stay in & listen to the noise any longer, the inside was covered in gritty dust, obviously the outside was just plain filthy as were all the other cars up here.

Does Asda seriously want to be neighbours with Heanor Haulage?

I've finally come to the conclusion that Mr Heanor Haulage is an ignorant man & does exactly what he wants, when he wants & where he wants!
I wish I could have the the same attitude & be as happy with myself as he is after causing so much upset & bother to other people who so obviously just do not matter.

And PMB Pallet Express [in Heanor Haulage buildings], will you stop waking me up at 5.15 virtually every morning?!

My exclamation mark key is getting very wobbly!!!!

I AM NOT IN A GOOD MOOD!!!

Asda Get Your Finger Out!

Come on Asda, hurry up with your planning application for Langley Mill, we want it passed as soon as possible so the bridge can be taken down on Bridge Street -

The reason why

Thursday night 1.30, I was in bed minding my own business listening to the DIESEL forklift trucks at PMB who work in some of the non-soundproofed Heanor Haulage buildings [tin shacks], when I heard several bangs.

I got up to have a look, opened the curtain a crack and a stone hit the window, it's a good job I have excellent bladder control for a 'near crumbly' or I'd have wet myself it was such a loud bang, in fact at first I thought it was a brick they'd used.

I phoned the police, spoke to a very nice lady who asked all the proper questions, unfortunately I couldn't give her many details as these are cowardly thugs who hide behind the bridge side so you can't see anything except the tops of their hoods and their hands throwing ammunition over.
They were raining pebbles over at the cars now that they'd run out of stones.

Obviously when the police came they'd gone over the bridge and disappeared.

Last Night 11.00

BANG!
Oh here we go again, then 3 eggs hit the front door, I watched them slide down the glass. Then the stones started, the little ba****ds must have taken a different route home this time as it was garden pea gravel they'd filled their pockets with.
Same routine - 999. Meanwhile my other half [who had planned this after Thursdays do] had got the hose pipe out and sprayed them with water, all the time they were throwing gravel at him. I went on the front then to wait for the police and they even threw it at me [how dare they?!]
The police to give them credit were very quick as they were close by.

After a bit of persuasion from us and our neighbours they gave them chase over the bridge where they were caught by more police waiting at the other end. Two police cars in the same area on a Sunday night - WOW!

My other half had gone over with the police with his little torch, he wanted to see their faces, he saw one and won't forget it, he's good at remembering people, me I have problems knowing who the woman in the mirror is in a morning.

There were 3 of them, no evidence of wrong doing on them, der! they'd used that.

Now this is the really annoying bit -

Policeman 1 who came back over the bridge with the 'thug waterer' - buying him a power washer!
"They're about 14 years old, 1 was crying, they'll be taken home and letters sent."
He then went in my neighbours house to discuss if they knew any reason why we were being targeted.

Policeman 2 who was then dropped off by the other police car -
"They're 17 & 18 but because there's no criminal damage done we've taken their names and let them go. They're not bad lads"

Me, disbelieving and spitting feathers -
"What do you mean they're not bad lads, you try living here, then tell me that!"

The conversation went on in a similar vein including that they'd thrown gravel at us and hit us but weren't hurt. I know as crimes go this is very trivial but to us it's not, it's distressing to say the least. My cat was terrified and trying to hide in a cupboard and my neighbours dog ended up with the squits.

Have you tried cleaning eggs off of a front door?? well no, me neither, I didn't clean it but I watched this morning as my grumpy old man struggled whilst muttering quite a lot, my neighbour came out and pointed out the little chips in our car windows and the bigger chip in her front window.

Anyway I'm not entirely satisfied with the police, the response was brilliant but the fact that they couldn't get their stories straight does not instil me with any sort of confidence.
I will be wanting a chat with 'cardboard Bob' at some point to see what he knows.

So Asda, get a move on before we set fire to the bridge ...

94% of residents support Asda

' 94% of residents are on our side' Asda claim, What a lovely high figure.

I really wonder why they asked our opinions at all, let's face it, it's got to be a foregone conclusion. All Asda had to do was find the grottiest bit of Amber Valley [where they so want to invest] and say "Look how we can improve this!" - as far as I can see an open cess-pit would greatly improve HH's land and the corner of Cromford road, so Asda should be well in with their proposals.

Yep, ever so grumpy today, but that's mainly because they keep persisting in giving the wrong address for Heanor Haulage - Cromford road - it's WESLEY STREET. Is this deliberate so that the only opinions sought after are from the Cromford Road residents? Quote - "people might struggle to sleep" - HOW?? It's nowhere near them. HELLLOOOO ... I'm being kept awake at night now by PMB Pallet Express in HH's crappy buildings!

Are Asda using poetic license describing Heanor Haulage as being in the centre of Langley Mill? Because if it is in the centre, then Langley Mill is very small - am feeling quite pedantic now too.

I now have to worry [as well as the other residents on BRIDGE STREET] whether our houses will actually withstand the demolition of the old buildings. Our houses shake now with Heanor Haulage and their doings. I have thought on several occasions that we'd had a mini-earthquake only to find it was just the crane moving something a few inches, plus there's the added bonus of asbestos roofing having to be removed directly across from us.

Hopefully when the time comes someone will actually get in touch with us and discuss their plans, I'd hate to wake up one morning to find the front of our house had fallen off during demolition and I wasn't wearing big pyjamas - as opposed to my playboy ones ...

Middle of the Night

Why is it that when I can't sleep in the dead of night I write wonderful, deeply interesting blogs in my mind, yet when I wake up next morning all memory of them has gone? Is this just another sign of old age - or grumpiness?

I think it would be a good idea to take a notebook and pen to bed with me as I'm awake for hours listening to HH and their buddies doing what they want and bugger everyone else. By the way HH or H-effin-H as I call them are one of the main causes of my grumpiness.

I have heard rumours that H-effin-H are leaving for good and that we're going to have a wonderful supermarket [Asda] in it's place, after looking at the area on Google Earth I realise that if the rumours are true then we'll be living in the middle of a car park instead of a scrap yard [lovely] ... unless one of the other rumours is true that we're going to be demolished too. I've been asking my friends and relations if they've got a spare room in case we are homeless, so far we've been offered a tent at the bottom of a garden and that WASN'T even an offer from my favourite sister [a grumpy neophyte] she just bandied words about like 'skip', whether she meant for me or my possessions is a matter I'm not clear on.

Oh heck, that's a thought, just how much crap this grumpy old woman has managed to amass, I was ok with my small hoard of rubbish until I moved in with my 'grumpy old man', he's got more stuff squirrelled away [NOT MONEY!!] than me.

I'll just give one example of things he collects as a retired electrician - He'd nipped out for some milk and when he came back he was so excited he was practically twirling on the spot.
"OK, what's up?" I ask.
'The cafe round the corner has closed and it's being refurbished"
"And??"
"Well they're chucking light fittings out and I can have them, I'm going back to fetch them now"

He came back with said fittings - for fluorescent tubes - a type of lighting I hate and which I'd gradually managed to evict four of from our house after moving in [when I say evict I use the term loosely, they're in the attic].
"What do you want them for?"
"You can't throw them away, you never know when they'll come in handy"...

Oh, another one, he's got a box of castors, he used to help refurbish fruit machines and they took off the castor wheels, so he brought them home as they're 'really handy' to have. That was five years ago, he hasn't used one but it has become a grumpy joke, if he makes anything for anyone they're always asked if they want it with castors ...

Another Grumpy Day

I'm in a grumpy mood, I'm tired. I didn't get to sleep last night until gone midnight because of big diesel stacker trucks working in tin-pot, corrugated metal sheds that I have the dubious pleasure of living near, they woke me again at 5.53am. I can feel another irate phone call to environmental health coming on, but that's a waste of time, they give you a sheet of paper telling you to fill in a diary of what they're doing and what times they disturb you, my last one was full of swear words as I wrote it whilst being grumpy - I haven't heard back, I wonder why?