'He's a brick short of a load': Neighbours' nightmare living next to building site where barefoot workers lives were put at risk
23.03.2022 - 09:59
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Those living next to a Tameside building site where a man wanting to build himself a new family home and allowed workers to dig barefoot have spoken of their 'nightmare.'
Mustapha Matib was not a builder but took it upon himself to act as principal contractor for the project to build the new home, which he intended to live in afterwards. But shocking pictures from the site showed workers with no shoes or socks working on the rubble-filled site.
Workers on the site, on a plot of land neighbouring a number of bungalows on a housing estate in the Haughton Green area of Denton, were also captured leaning over a huge hole estimated to be around seven-feet deep. Locals said they understood was to become a swimming pool.
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The botched excavation work has now left one property on Gilbraltar Lane, close to the Haughton Dale Nature Reserve in the Tame Valley, 'unstable', said the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Matib was successfully prosecuted by HSE and was handed a suspended prison term at Manchester Magistrates Court.
Today, those living nearby spoke of their anger and frustration at what had been happening at the site following the granting of planning permission several years ago. One man, Ernie Lamb, said it had been 'a nightmare'.
The 77-year-old said: "We've been here for two and a half years and it's been going on since before then. It's been going on for up to four to five years I believe. It's just gone on and on and on, and it's caused a lot upset round here.
"I saw them working barefoot, everyone did! They were blaring loud music as well and we just couldn't believe what we were seeing really. We kept asking how are