A couple fears that the wall outside their holiday apartments could collapse and fall through their kitchen because of lorries driving to and from a student development site.

The wall outside their Penwerris Lane property has already started to sink and a crack has appeared since lorries began mounting the pavement whilst working on a previous development next to the proposed student block.

 

Lorries have to mount the pavement to pass when cars are parked outside Goodwinds Apartments

Jean Goodwin, of Goodwinds Holiday Apartments, said: "That's just that little development, so when the big one starts what's it going to be like? We are ever so worried."

Sid Goodwin said: "The lorries have to come up on the pavement. It wasn't built to withstand it. By the time they build those flats there, these [walls] are going to go. This will all collapse in a minute.

"Imagine if that [wall] did slide away, that lorry would fall in here and go through this kitchen. If anybody was in here they'd be killed."

 

The retaining wall started to collapse during the construction of a previous development, according to Sid

Jean feels as though a simple solution from builders could prevent disaster, saying "if we could get posts to stop vehicles on [the pavement] we'd be happy".

But when Devon-based contractors URBN Construction were contacted by the Packet, they refused to comment and hung up the phone.

 

The view from the Goodwins' garden when a lorry has to pass

The 134-bed student block in Penwerris Lane has faced significant criticism from residents who say that it is the wrong location for such a large development, especially because the only road to access it is so narrow.

When cars are parked opposite the Goodwinds Apartments, lorries have to mount the pavement to get to the site, and Jean's husband Sid said that this is slowly but surely damaging their wall.

As well as their worries over the retaining wall, the Goodwins fear that their problems will continue even when building work is finished.

Jean said: "You can imagine all the traffic that's going to come along. It's absolutely ludicrous, most of our guests have been coming to us for 20 years and they can't move quick.

"A lot of our guests are children and we don't want them to run into the road and get run over. To say that students don't have cars is stupid because they do.

"[The first development] was affecting our business, we had a couple go home early because they couldn't stand the noise."

Sid added: "A guest who is elderly walked out and nearly got run over. It's an accident waiting to happen."