FED-up residents living near Backwell Recycling Centre are appealing for more to be done to protect them from the noise at the site.

People living near the site in Coles Quarry, Church Town, have been campaigning for noise levels to be reduced since the facility was installed.

North Somerset Council put up an acoustic fence to try to reduce the disruption to residents, but villagers claim it has not worked.

Bruce Stewart, secretary of the Backwell Residents Association (BRA), said: “They put up an acoustic barrier but that hasn’t cured it and there are still complaints.

“Most of those complaints arise from the operation of consolidating in the skips.

“When you get rubble or anything hard or metal dropping 12ft or more into the skip it makes a lot of noise.

“They have a big machine which consolidates it. They used to do this by pounding it, which made a hollow sound all round the valley.

“They were asked to stop that and they now crush it which makes less noise, but it is still loud.”

The site is owned by North Somerset Council and operated by May Gurney.

BRA has approached both parties as well as the Environment Agency to appeal for a further noise study to be done to show whether levels are still excessive despite the fence.

BRA has suggested the possibility of some form of insulation under the skips to reduce the amount of noise.

Mr Stewart said: “What we want is the comfort of residents in the area. They were there before the recycling centre.

“We want further improvements to be made on the site or changes in operational methods.

“Residents would also like restrictions on compacting to ensure it does not occur at weekends or holidays.”

Paul Gainey, a spokesman for the Environment Agency, said: “We were aware that there were a number of complaints about the noise and the company did construct some barriers.

“We did some checks afterwards and found there was a reduction in noise that made them compliant.

“Given the complaints, we will go back and monitor the site to make sure the noise levels haven’t increased and the company hasn’t changed its work practices, which has caused an increase in noise.”