THE idyllic semi-rural lifestyle in the Homestead Ridge estate in Wellard could be ruined with thousands of haulage trucks to use the area to get to a nearby housing development.
Residents are angry with Peet Ltd, the developer behind The Village at Wellard, which is starting work on the latest stage of the housing estate and moving its on-site compound so trucks and work vehicles will now access it via Leda Boulevard.
There will be about 1500 truck movements on the road, which runs through Homestead Ridge, over the 20 weeks it will take to complete stage 23 of the nearby housing estate, which was due to start today.
In a situation familiar to many in developing suburbs like Wellard or Baldivis, residents have reported being woken by the reversing signal of heavy machinery as early as 6.30am.
Homestead Ridge Residents Association spokeswoman Kathleen Verrier said residents met the developer yesterday morning and raised concerns about road safety, noise, pollution, tree clearing, danger to animals and lack of communication with residents.
“The residents have not been told anything by the developers or their contractors,” she said.
Ms Verrier said it was not the first time there was no information for residents. Last year residents stood in the way of bulldozers after they started clearing near the same area.
Peet managing director and chief executive Brendan Gore said work to relocate the compound would take about two weeks.
“All site employees and subcontractors are acutely aware that they will be working in close proximity to existing residences and will be doing all they can to ensure noise and other inconvenience is minimised,” he said.
Mr Gore said the new access route would be much shorter per truck trip and save about 15,000 driving minutes over the time.
“Using Leda Boulevard will also minimise the inconvenience and safety risk to the majority of Kwinana residents,” he said.
“Trucks using the new route will pass fewer homes than they currently do, affecting less residents and representing the safest option for the community.”