DISAPPOINTED residents have failed to stop supermarket giant Tesco getting permission to put air conditioning and other machinery on the roof of its new store.

People living in the bungalows behind the Embassy Court redevelopment in Welling claimed noise from the units could spoil the enjoyment of their gardens and disturb their sleep.

Concerned Bexley Council planning committee members deferred a decision at their last meeting, so they could hear for themselves the proposed noise levels.

Embassy Court’s original plans showed the machinery housed inside the building, but councillors were told new, greener units were being used, which needed to go on the roof.

Developers of the scheme, which also includes 64 flats on three further storeys above the supermarket, promised an acoustic roof fence to hide the units from the view and reduce noise.

Last week the plans went back to the committee, after some members had attended a demonstration of the noise levels.

The developers, Watson Whittaker Partnership, also erected the fence to demonstrate its effectiveness in protecting the residents, whose homes in St John’s and St Michael’s Roads back onto Embassy Court.

Despite their initial enthusiasm for the redevelopment, residents are now bitter their bungalows are completely dwarfed, and claim their privacy has been lost.

Linda Price whose mother lives in St John’s Road, said residents had been treated appallingly and claimed Embassy Court had now been dubbed Alcatraz by locals.

She complained residents had not been invited to the noise demonstration, nor notified that Tesco had wanted to put the machinery on the roof.

Mrs Price claimed the acoustic fence, which will be covered in plants, just added to the overbearing nature of the building.

But the committee approved the plans after councillors said the demonstration showed noise levels would be acceptable.

A BEXLEY councillor and member of Bexley’s planning committee has been threatened with a complaint by a fellow member of the committee.

Councillor Munir Malik accused the council of being unfair to residents, after an objector to the Embassy Court, Welling, planning application was cut short during her presentation to last week’s committee meeting.

He told the committee: “The objector barely had time to express an opinion.”

Cllr Malik accused officers of making a prior agreement with Tesco to “push it through” the planning process.

He said: “We are supposed to be hear to represent the residents and make sure their living environment is enhanced.”

But Cllr Malik’s comments enraged fellow councillor Mike Slaughter who condemned his “disgraceful attack on officers” and said he would be taking the matter further.

Replying Cllr Malik refused to apologise and said the rules which laid down time limits for speakers should be reviewed because he claimed residents were at a disadvantage.