Residents in a village where 2000 HGVs pass through every day are dismayed by long delays to a bypass to reduce their traffic nightmare.
Villagers told how can’t open their windows due to the constant roar of vehicles travelling through the tiny community.
Along with the heavy goods vehicles, around 23,000 cars, vans and motorbikes take the route through Hollingworth in Greater Manchester.
The long-awaited Mottram Bypass was expected to be under construction by now, but the £223 million project has been hit by fresh delays.
The bypass, which has been 50 years in the making, was the subject of a legal challenge by environmental charity, the Campaign for Rural England.
Building work was due to start this spring, but a judicial review will now be carried out, causing a delay of “several months”.
Villager Dorothy Turton, 75, who runs a shop which has been in her family for three generations, told the Manchester Evening News: “I’ve had triple glazing put in, but you can still hear the noise.
“I cannot have the door open because of the noise and dust. I have put some books outside for sale in aid of the church today, but they’ll be covered in dust by the end of the day.
“The traffic is terrible. Even on a Sunday it’s bad.
“It’s more or less chokka block every day. You just need an accident or a little bit of road works and the traffic almost goes all the way to Sheffield.”
But Dorothy said the planned bypass won’t solve the traffic issue, adding many people believe it will make it worse.
She added: “And I don’t want it to go through the green belt.
“I’ve opposed it in the past because I think there should be traffic restrictions instead. I just want the cars and lorries to go around - keep them on the motorways!”
A dual-carriageway would bypass Mottram in Longendale from the M67 to Mottram Moor under the plans, while another link road would take traffic away from Woolley Lane onwards to Glossop and Snake Pass.
However, traffic heading to and from Woodhead Pass would still travel through Hollingworth.
Sarah Denton, who works in the village post office, said: “The traffic is awful and it’s getting worse. It’s pretty much constant throughout the day.
“There’s a grid outside and when the lorries go through it’s like an earthquake. We’ve had bottles fall off the shelf before.
“I used to live in a place where there was no traffic, then I came here and it was like ‘Oh my God’.”
Vivien Dawes, 80, whose home is just a few feet away from the traffic, described the bypass delay as “ridiculous”.
She said: “We have been waiting 50 years for something to be done,” she said. “The traffic has got worse in the last five years and it’s not just the lorries.
“It’s only a small village, but they keep building all these estates and it just means more cars.
“It takes 30 minutes to get out of the village and 30 minutes to come back - you have to add an hour on wherever you’re going.”
Brian Butler, vice chair of the now defunct Longendale Siege Committee, a pressure group which campaigned for a bypass, said: "I wonder if we get forgotten about because we're on the fringe of Greater Manchester, out on the edge of Derbyshire.
"When you see the state of this road and all the traffic, it's bloody frustrating."
Don't miss the latest news from around Scotland and beyond - Sign up to our daily newsletter here.
