Neighbours want 'red monstrosity' toned down

People living near a 59-foot-high (17.9 m) self-storage unit in Milton Keynes have branded it a "red monstrosity".

The Shurgard building is being built on Watling Street, but residents across the road have said they want the developers to change its colour.

One of them, Dave Minzey, said: "I would like the colour changed, because I can't see them pulling it down and moving it for us. It dominates you - your eye is drawn to it the whole time."

A spokesperson for Milton Keynes council said it was "actively pursuing an enforcement case" against the developers because "landscaping conditions had not been met". The BBC has approached Shurgard and developers Stainforth Construction for comment.

The Shurgard unit is on the site of an old garage on the outskirts of the city and is one of more than 90 the company has across the country.

That also includes one in the Kingston area of Milton Keynes and units in Bedford, Luton, Stevenage and Hemel Hempstead.

Minzey said warehouses on the other side of the city had "graduated colours, but this one does not blend; it is very high and sort of dominates".

He added: "It is bad enough having Watling Street at the back here which is fairly noisy, but we have done quite a lot of work in the garden, and my wife has done tremendously well making it look nice, so coming out here now is a bit of torture."

His neighbour Jonathan Williams has lived in Great Holm for six years.

He said: "If you look at the large warehouses towards the A5, they have got green or blue faded tops so they sink into the skyline.

"At 17.9 metres it's just impossible to screen and there is nothing around here, anywhere near as tall as this building."

He said similar warehouses tended to be on industrial estates and "not 60 metres across the road from a large residential area".

He also voiced concerns that construction was taking place outside normal working hours.

"They have most recently been working until 3am pouring and smoothing concrete which leaves this loud droning noise while the spinners are running and keeping residents awake," he added.

The facility is as tall, but not as big, as the Blakelands warehouse on the other side of the city that was at the centre of a planning row at the beginning of the decade.

A review into how that warehouse was allowed to be built found that planning conditions were missed as a result of "human error".

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