FED-UP residents say their lives are being made a misery after their road was made a diversion route for lorries.

Homeowners on Gover Road in Southampton are now calling for compensation, as well as answers from Southampton City Council as to why HGVs have been diverted through the residential area.

Major roadworks are being carried out at junction one of the M271 at Nursling to improve the roundabout to allow it to accommodate the extra traffic generated by the new Lidl distribution centre which is nearing completion just off the junction.

But as a result of the works Gover Road is being used by lorries and other vehicles as a diversion.

Residents say the road is not suitable for the goods vehicles and have accused Lidl and Southampton City Council of putting business above residents' welfare.

Vice-chair of Redbridge Residents Association Margaret Wright said the noise keeps people awake at night.

They also fear current situation will only get worse another new distribution centre in Test Lane is set to be built after that plan was given approval in October last year.

Independent councillor for Redbridge Andrew Pope, pictured, said: “Residents have suffered repeated disruption and noise, the traffic chaos in the area has been going back for months.”

Contractors, R&W, have put in place signs to advising HGVs not to use the road routinely and only when it is the official diversion when the roundabout is closed on Saturday nights.

Resident Pam Carey, 79, retired said: “It wakes me up and shakes the whole house.

"I think we should be compensated because it is awful - it used be lovely and quiet here but it is not anymore.”

Executive Member for Environment and Transport at Hampshire County Council, Rob Humby said they had worked to minimise disruption but the number of feasible options were “very limited”.

“The diversion has been confined to Saturday nights only, when there is less HGV traffic than at other times.

"The contractors wrote to residents before the works to let them know of the diversion route, and following concerns they expressed to us, we’ve made changes to signs and traffic controls on the diversion route which aim to minimise disruption as far as possible.

“I apologise for the inconvenience to residents during these works, but would like to reassure them that the diversion route is used only when essential and that we anticipate requiring no more than four more nights to complete the road works.”

He added that the work should be completed earlier than planned in mid-October.

Service Director of Growth, at Southampton City Council Mike Harris added that they were aware of residents’ frustrations and regretted the inconvenience but added: “We anticipate that the investment in the road infrastructure and the many jobs, over 250, that are being created by the development itself, will bring many benefits to the City.”

A spokesman for Lidl said the highways scheme was not something they were involved in but they understood all reasonable efforts were made to limit the impact of the works.

They said: “We would like to apologise to residents of Gover Road and whilst we understand their frustration this situation is unfortunately out of our control as we are not the vendor of the works and have not been part of any discussions.”