Open all hours store 'ruining our lives'

Richard and Janet Grace, both in their mid-thirties, say they are at their wit's end after suffering constant sleepless nights because of noisy trucks, drunken youths and car park lights.

"There's always been noise from the store but now its happening throughout the night," said Mr Grace, of Springs Terrace.

"The entrance to the store is 50 feet across the road from our bedroom window and it is becoming unbearable. We get woken up at the crack of dawn by trucks making deliveries."

He said they were regularly kept awake by rowdy incidents with drunks and had to listen to trolleys rattling across the ground all night.

"At pub kicking out time we get groups of people gathering in the car park - sometimes as many as 20. They are quite loud and we have been woken up by people shouting and urinating. The store seems to have adopted a non-confrontational approach to the youths meaning they don't get moved on.

"The supermarket claims the trolleys are locked up at night, but we can still hear them," he said.

The constant lighting outside the store is also causing a headache for the couple. "One of the lights shines directly into our bedroom," said Mr Grace. "Again, the store said the lights would be moved but they haven't been."

But Tesco manager Helen Nicholson said the store was not to blame for the problems.

"We have had our car park lights turned downwards. If there is a light that shines on Mr Grace's window it is not a Tesco one," she said.

She also said the 24-hour opening had not increased the number of deliveries or changed delivery times. "They are exactly the same."

And she claimed that late-night incidents involving youngsters were unrelated to the round-the-clock opening hours.

"We have had incidents with skateboarders using the car park at night but these youths used to do this when the store was shut.

"We have full-time security cover at night and in the last week we have had no incidents at all."