Fed up residents are kept up all night by two loose manhole covers outside their homes that is so loud it shakes the properties on the street.
Residents living on St James Lane in Coventry say their homes shake every time lorries or cars drive over the damaged road surface covers.
Some say the noise ‘sounds like a train’ as the covers are driven over hundreds of times a day.
The clattering sound is often worse in the evening when residents say buses go over them every 15 minutes.
Severn Trent is responsible for the covers but locals say the company has logged the job as ‘completed’ despite people complaining since last year.
Dad-of-two Dan Rawe, 33, says the noise wakes his four-year-old daughter up almost every night.
The builder said: ‘It was about two or three years ago they fixed it before but then it’s been like that for at least nine months.
‘It was around Covid when it first started and then it’s been like it again for the last nine months.
Fed up residents are desperate to move as two manhole covers outside their homes is so loud it shakes the properties on the street. Above, Dan Rawe, 33, says the noise wakes his four-year-old daughter up almost every night
Christine Moxon, 82, has lived on the street for 50 years and says the manhole covers regularly keep her up at night
‘It wakes our four-year-old daughter up most nights because her bedroom is at the front of the house.
‘It’s at least once a week it wakes her up, whenever a bus goes over it that’s it, it booms.
‘Around 4pm and rush hour it’s so loud. Then at night there’s a bus every 15 minutes, so it hits it all the time.’
He added: ‘My sister-in-law, she lives a few streets behind us and they can hear it at night. The noise travels across several streets.
‘It can sound like a train if you have a load go over them or at best it sounds like Caribbean drums when the traffic’s flowing.
‘I rang Severn Trent up and they said the work has already been done. I told them to come and see for themselves but I’ve heard nothing.’
Christine Moxon, 82, has lived on the street for 50 years and says the manhole covers regularly keep her up at night.
She said: ‘I sleep at the front and it wakes me up at night. It’s been bad since they did it, it must be at least six months.
‘If there’s traffic going along at night, I hear it. It can be quieter at night because there’s less traffic, but I can still hear it.
‘It’s also bad early in the morning as the traffic builds up.
‘I usually go to bed at 10.30pm and I can hear traffic going along and it takes me a while to get to sleep because of the crashing noise from the cover.
‘Then I’m sometimes woken up in the morning with the crashing of the early morning people going to work.
‘The traffic gets backed up a long way up the road, it makes the noise constant.’
Residents living on St James Lane in Coventry say their homes shake every time lorries or cars drive over the damaged road surface covers
One resident said said the noise is so bad at night and is considering moving house
The pensioner added: ‘I think looking at it, it looks lower compared to the rest of the tarmac. It’s lower than the surroundings, you can hear it crashing every time something goes along. It’s obviously something that isn’t quite right.
‘I haven’t had a word from Severn Trent. I just think that whoever put it in, didn’t put it in level.
‘Anybody in any of these houses nearby cannot fail to hear it, it’s that loud. It’s been bad for months.
‘They did something and they didn’t do it right, so it started making the noise.’
Another resident said the noise keeps him awake at night and is considering moving house.
He said: ‘The noise manages to ring through our house every time a car or bus hits it.
‘It happens all the time, no matter what time of day it is. There’s no break from it.
‘I often get woken up by it and it’s not on. Some cars know and will try and avoid it, but because of where it is, the majority of drivers can’t.
‘It keeps me awake at night when I’m trying to actually sleep. It’s part of the reason we’re debating moving.’
Severn Trent confirmed they had carried out an inspection of cover.
A spokesperson said: ‘We have received reports of a noisy manhole cover on St James Lane and a team has been out to make an inspection and evaluate the work needed to make a repair.
‘Due to the location of this manhole we will need to put some traffic management in place to keep everyone safe while we make the repair.
‘We have now received a permit for these works on 18th February and our team will get everything back to normal as quickly as possible.
‘We understand just how disruptive a loose manhole like this can be and apologise to local residents for any inconvenience.’
A Coventry City Council spokesperson said: ‘We have received complaints about this location and have been in dialogue with Severn Trent about it.’
