CONSTRUCTION of the new Aldi store in Chester has been causing a headache for neighbours kept awake by contractors working past midnight.

The supermarket chain has also come under fire for “arrogantly” closing a section of nearby Parkgate Road, reportedly without authorisation from the council.

Andy Scargill, who lives on the road, said: “Aldi are not exactly endearing themselves to the local community!”

Cheshire West and Chester Council said it had spoken to the company “to ensure this doesn’t happen again”.

A spokesman for Aldi has apologised for the situation and vowed to restrict work to daytime hours.

But she also refuted the suggestion that the road was closed without permission, saying workers “acted in accordance with technical approval for the Parkgate Road closure”.

The issue was first raised on Twitter when Mr Scargill – a well-known local environmental campaigner – blasted the company for closing the road with no warning.

On Thursday last week (March 14) he wrote: “Very annoyed and concerned that residents were not told about Parkgate Rd being blocked for road works last night. There are two very disabled children and many old folk living here. Emergency services could not have got through.”

He said nobody from the local residents’ group had any idea the road would be closed and demanded better communication from the company.

“There are a lot of very annoyed people this morning,” Mr Scargill tweeted. “Last night could have seen a very serious incident because of this arrogance - fortunately it didn't.”

Upton councillor Matt Bryan also took to Twitter claiming there had been three logged incidents of working past midnight last week.

Cheshire West and Chester Council confirmed they had sent out regulatory services enforcement officers to the scene.

A spokesman said: “The Council's Highways team are apologising to residents and have spoken with Aldi to ensure this doesn't happen again. Residents can call the emergency out of hours number: 0300 1237036 to report issues.”

In a statement, Aldi said: “We apologise to residents for the noise caused by out of hours works on Countess Way. We have spoken to our contractor to ensure that future works to that part of the road network will be carried out during daytime hours.

“While we believe we acted in accordance with the technical approval for the Parkgate Road closure, we apologise to residents for the lack of communication of the works and any issues this may have caused.”