A HOUSEBUILDER was served with a legal notice to stop work on a development over concerns it breached planning conditions.

Sunderland City Council served the Temporary Stop Notice on Persimmon Homes on Friday for Hillfield Meadows, Silksworth – granted planning permission in November 2019.

Planning conditions for 250 homes included adequate protection against dust and council officers monitoring the development were responding to complaints from local residents on a "range of issues".

The council’s notice was to secure the cessation of all activities generating excessive dust such as excavations, earth moving operations.

Leader of Sunderland City Council, Councillor Graeme Miller said: “As a city council we want to and are seeing more housing development as we make Sunderland into a 21st century city.

“We are very supportive of responsible developers but must also support our communities who demand respectful construction practices to be demonstrated.

“In doing this however, we expect all developers to work in partnership with us here at the council and to be good neighbours.

“If we can’t achieve that, and with a history of excessive dust levels being generated from this site, then we have no hesitation in taking formal action where it is in the public interest to do so.”

A spokesperson for Persimmon Homes said: “We appreciate the inconvenience that can be caused by construction and take all our environmental responsibilities very seriously.

“We have met with the planning enforcement team from the council on site on Tuesday and they have not raised any points of concern and have given permission for works to continue.

“Persimmon Homes has and continues to work closely with planning enforcement officers at Sunderland City Council to monitor dust levels at our Hillfield Meadows development.

"The results from dust monitoring stations on the development are collected and analysed by an independent environmental consultant and shared with the planning authority and we have not been made aware of any recent or ongoing issues prior to this notice being served.

“As part of our commitment to responsible construction we have a water tanker on site during construction hours and it is deployed as the predominant means of dust control.

“Despite the exceptionally warm weather over the bank holiday weekend the dust monitoring stations on the site boundary next to a residential area both recorded dust levels significantly below the Environment Agency’s trigger for dust being ‘noticeable’.”