By Alexander Hodgkins-Jones
A De Montfort University student has expressed his frustration after persistent late-night building work next at his accommodation has “ruined” his first year of university.
Callum Dingley moved into his new student digs in Leicester’s Liberty Court, last September.
Initial excitement soon turned to despair when noise from building work next to his room began causing him sleepless nights.
Callum said: “I feel like I can’t study at home. It’s really painstaking being next to the building site. I’ve been up at 4am some nights telling them to keep it down ‘cause people are sleeping.”
Builders have been operating loud machinery feet away from Callum’s ground floor room since the beginning of the academic year.
He says the work often occurs throughout the night.
The noise is so loud and continuous that he cannot focus on completing university work.
It has forced him to miss lectures, lose sleep and is “ruining” his university experience.
After his frustration grew, Callum began recording clips of the construction site every night when he returned from classes.
Planning documents reveal an intention to build new student accommodation on the site, which will comprise of 122 student bedrooms.
The application was approved by Leicester City Council on October 9 last year.
Demolition of an existing two-storey office building began in August and was completed prior to the redevelopment being approved.
The planning officer report, which outlines the conditions for the building work, stipulate that no construction or demolition should be undertaken outside of the hours of 7.30am to 6pm on weekdays.
Callum says that this has been breached on multiple occasions.
He has made a formal complaint to the council but is yet to receive a response.
“There’s a lot of midwives [staying here] who work through the night and I imagine it’s even worse for them when they get back and are trying to sleep in the day,” said Callum.
The three others in his halls of residence share his grievances.
Liberty Court was not Callum’s first choice of accommodation, he feels for £146 a week he is not “getting much” for his money due to the ongoing noise problem.
“I like the location and the place is nice, but I would never have chosen to stay here if I had known about the noise.”
There is no official ETA for when the works will be completed.
Liberty Living, who run Liberty Court student accommodation, have been approached for comment.
