RESIDENTS living along the busy A419 and A417 angry about the long-running issue of noise from the busy roads have come together to combat the problem.

Last September a public meeting was held in Latton where residents decided to form a steering group to deal with the problem, which has plagued residents since the roads were built in 1996.

This now charging ahead with a group of ten residents and councillors from Cirencester and the Water Park, as well as Bagendon, Latton, Down Ampney and Cerney Wick due to meet in South Cerney tomorrow evening.

Cotswold Liberal Democrat leader Paul Hodgkinson (Lib Dem, Churn Valley), who is chairing the first meeting, said residents north of Cirencester, as well as those living in the Water Park area, had been suffering from the problem for a long time.

“Some of my constituents raised the issue with me again and we agreed something fundamental had to be done about this,” he said.

“I put a note out to all those who’d expressed interest in getting involved with this campaign and we will have a good spread of people at our first meeting, which is a great start.”

He added the aim of the meeting was to bring greater awareness to the problem, and to target the organisations that can do something about it.

“At stake here is the quality of life of all those thousands of people who live near and along the dual carriageway,” he said. “The road should never have been built in concrete near to areas of population.”