NOISY building work on a new housing estate has been carried out on Sundays – to the frustration of neighbours.

Work on 144 new homes, on the former Gloucester Park swimming pool site, off Broadmayne, Basildon, and surrounding land, is only supposed to happen from 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 2pm on Saturdays.

No work, such as digging, building or putting up scaffolding, is supposed to take place on Sundays, under terms agreed with Basildon Council.

However, residents from surrounding streets complained the work has been going on after 2pm on Saturdays and on Sundays.

A council spokesman confirmed work was carried out on Sunday November 6 and 13.

It is understood this was done by a scaffolding sub-contractor firm, which was employed by the main development consortium behind the scheme, Barratt Wilson Bowden.

The council spokesman said: “The hours of work set with Barratt reflect the need to cause minimal disruption to local residents, particularly at weekends, balanced against completing the work in a timely fashion.

“We were made aware of these hours being breached on two occasions by a sub-contractor and this has been dealt with by Barratt.”

Andrew Buxton, 42, from nearby Roodegate, complained about noisy building work continuing until at least 4pm on Saturdays and from 7.15am on Sundays.

He said: “It isn’t fair, we are living in hell. You get all the dust and noise, but they don’t care.”

Phil Rackley, opposition Labour councillor for St Martin’s ward, met residents from Roodegate and other surrounding streets to hear their complaints about the over-running building work.

He said: “It’s not fair on the people who have to put up with all that noise and mess all week long, to expect them to endure it at weekends too.”

The old Gloucester Park pool was closed in April this year and demolition started in September, before building work began on the new homes.

Hundreds of residents joined an unsuccessful campaign to stop homes being built on the old pool site.

Outline planning permission has also been granted for a further 375 new homes, next door to the 144 town houses currently being built.

A spokesman from Barratt said: “We are aware of complaints about out-of-hours working and associated disturbance for which we apologise. We have spoken to our sub-contractors to ensure this does not happen again.”