RESIDENTS whose light was blotted out when a three storey office block went up just yards from their homes might not see the open sky again until June, they have been told.

Laurence Cawley

RESIDENTS whose light was blotted out when a three storey office block went up just yards from their homes might not see the open sky again until June, they have been told.

The giant temporary building - made of stacked portable buildings - went up in March 2007 by Taylor Woodrow as offices for their workers building the �100million Arc development.

Yet despite the official opening of Arc, residents living in Nelson Road, just yards from the office structure, will have to wait until May for dismantling work to begin.

It is understood Taylor Woodrow will leave the building at the end of April and the clean up operation, which will start in May, will take up to four weeks to complete.

Residents, who were paid about �1,000 as a “goodwill gesture” by St Edmundsbury Borough Council, say they are looking forward to having their clear skies back once the building is removed.

Peter Evenden, chairman of the Nelson Road Residents Association, said: “We've had two and a half years. You never get used to it. It is such an ugly structure.

“It has been like living next to the side of a ship for some people. This is the end of a long saga and I suppose we should be pleased about it. We were very fed up with it.

“We can understand why it was put up there - there was no spare space and that was the only bit of land they could build it on.”

Another Nelson Road resident said she was delighted to hear the building was coming down.

She said the lack of light reaching her back garden had decimated her plants and left her patio covered in damp moss.

“It has been far worse for those living further down the road because although I have had two storeys at the back of my garden, they had three storeys blocking out even more light,” she said.

A spokeswoman for St Edmundsbury Borough Council said: “The council has been informed by Taylor Woodrow that their current plan is to vacate the temporary offices by the end of April so that dismantling can begin in early May.

“This process is expected to take about four weeks, after which the site will be tidied up.”