RAGING residents in the upper Port have accused housing bosses of turning a car park in their quiet street into a dangerous building site.

Ian McLennan of Maxwellton Road is one of the people up in arms with River Clyde Homes after the car park outside their homes was used as a storage site for a major construction project.

Ian says no one consulted the people living there before the car park was deployed as a makeshift yard.

Over the last year residents have had to put up with the disruption of heavy construction traffic as builders work on the £12m Slaemuir social housing development.

They say that the site owned by River Clyde Homes has been abandoned for weeks, with building materials left lying around.

Debris, bricks, barriers, concrete slabs, heavy equipment, containers and pallets are among the items cluttering the area.

Angry Ian, 62, told our sister title The Greenock Telegraph: "No one ever asked us or even told us they were going to use an area in our street for this.

"We have had tippers up here, in a street with children.

"We had to tell them to slow down at one point.

"Now they look like they have finished up, but they have left everything lying about.

"Why has it not been secured?

"This is a health and security risk if children are outside playing."

Bosses at River Clyde Homes gave builders Cruden Building the go ahead to use the area while they were building the new development.

But Ian says that the safety of residents has been overlooked.

He said: "At one point someone in the street had to ask them to move material because they were blocking entry to her house and she was worried in case there was a fire.

"I think we have put up with enough.

"Over the last few weeks it has looked like they are not coming back.

"No one has been near the place for weeks, but it is left like this."

River Clyde Homes told the newspaper  that the car park had been needed to facilitate work on the major Slaemuir development.

Earlier this year the new housing site came under attack from vandals who set houses on fire while they were being built.

The project is now now almost complete, after Cruden were forced to rebuild two of the homes set ablaze back in May.

Carine Strain, a senior repairs and investment manager at RCH, said: “As all but two of the plots - those twice deliberately destroyed by fire - have been constructed, it is understandable that residents may have assumed that works have been completed.

“We have confirmed with our contractor, Cruden Building, that materials being stored there are for those last two plots, that they are secure and that an update on the works and use of the car park is being issued to residents.

“We have checked the area to satisfy ourselves of its condition and security.”