Westminster City Council has created a new team of dedicated council officers to stop nuisance basement developments.

The 'subterranean squad' will tackle basement projects whose noise, dust and traffic impacts have had a major effect on local residents in London.

The team will be funded by a levy on residents looking to extend their homes below ground. The average cost of a residential basement scheme is around £8,000, with larger developments to be charged around £30,000.

The new powers will only be applied to basements when gained planning permission from August 2016 onward, with other major development schemes in September.

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Overall, the team will:

• take a degree of oversight and control, for example making sites coordinate their deliveries and reduce the cumulative impact on residents

• check that developers are keeping neighbours informed for instance via newsletters or site meetings

• enforce stricter working hours so as to avoid noisy works at inconvenient times such as Saturday mornings

• provide a point of contact for residents with complaints – with the power to enforce against overly noisy sites under statutory powers

• monitor the level and impacts of traffic to sites

• police development sites of over 10 residential units, or over 1000m2 commercial floorspace

Cllr Robert Davis said: "We are sticking up for local residents, many of whom have found the explosion of basement development in recent years hellish.

"It is right that those who want to build basements should contribute to this new service, which will work to help mitigate the negative impacts.

"Westminster City Council supports the right kind of growth and is not against all basement development, but they must be carried out in a way that is considerate to local residents and the environment."

(LM/CD)