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Call centre 'will ruin quiet estate'
PLANS to create a 1,000-job call centre have left residents fearing it will create major parking problems on their doorstep.
People living at Market Dock, off River Drive, South Shields, voiced their concerns at a meeting about the scheme held at South Shields Town Hall.
Construction work on the site, being developed by Garlands Call Centres, began last summer.
The residents' main concern is that the call centre, which is planned to have only 95 parking spaces, will lead to a heavy increase of traffic flow.
They also expressed their disapproval about proposals to block off Wapping Street, which, they say, would create more problems.
The residents are instead calling for Long Row - which is pencilled in to be the main access to the call centre - to be blocked off to traffic.
Carl Mowatt, of Long Row, Market Dock, South Shields, said: "If Wapping Street is blocked off, I will have a constant flow of traffic going past my front door.
"And because there's not enough spaces for people who work there to park, they'll dump their cars on my street and I won't even be able to get a space.
"It's a lovely quiet estate, and this call centre will ruin it with all the people coming and going all the time.
"I'm all for bringing jobs to the area, but not if it's unfair to the residents, which this is."
Mr Mowatt added most of the residents want residential parking down at Market Dock by the time the call centre is operational.
Coun John Anglin, who attended the meeting with fellow Beacon and Bents member Coun John Wood, said he was 100 per cent behind the residents in their demands for residential parking, and for Long Row to be permanently blocked off.
He said: "What the residents want is for Wapping Street to be the only means of access to the call centre, and that is the issue we have put forward to the council."
A spokesman for Garlands said any parking matters outside the grounds of the site lies with the council and confirmed the centre will be officially opened in April this year.
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Weather for South Shields
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Light sleet showers
Temperature: -1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South
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Sunny spells
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