New store's night-time deliveries drive neighbours off their trolleys

A NEW Tesco store is causing a nightmare for neighbours with its noisy night-time deliveries, it was claimed today.

The chain took over the supermarket in Duke Street, Leith from Scotmid, which only ever had deliveries during the day.

Nearby residents said they were initially delighted to hear that the shop would be given a new lease of life, but their excitement turned to gloom when they were repeatedly woken up by noisy deliveries in the middle of the night.

City council noise officers say they are unable to force Tesco to change delivery times because the building already has permission for night-time drop-offs, although Scotmid never used it.

Lindsay Hutton, 27, whose bedroom overlooks the shop's delivery bay, said: "I didn't get a problem at all with Scotmid. They never delivered at night, they just deliver during the day.

"A couple of weeks before they opened there were noises, they started drilling at about 12.40 in the morning and they were throwing things into skips and being really loud and shouting and obviously not caring that there are people trying to sleep.

"But that's nothing compared to the noise they're making with the deliveries.

"The first couple of weeks it was practically every second night from 1am to 3am. It's a ridiculous amount of noise, they're slamming trolleys about and things.

"I can't sleep at all because now they're doing it every single night. They're getting deliveries from one or half-one for about 45 minutes. I can't sleep at all because I'm expecting them to come. I had a migraine for two or three days when they first started it because I wasn't getting any sleep at all."

Ms Hutton reported the problem to the city council, but was told there was nothing that could be done. "The noise control department came out and they said there's not very much they can do because it's an old store and they have planning permission to deliver in this area but if it was a new store they wouldn't get permission," she said.

A spokesman for Tesco said: "In order to service this increasingly popular store, we have to receive a number of deliveries at different points in the day. We are committed to being a good neighbour and have undertaken a number of measures, including turning off radios, fridge motors and reversing alarms on our lorries, in order to reduce any disruption."

A council spokesman said "We're talking to the residents and the store and are monitoring the situation."