The developer at the centre of a controversy over heavy traffic from a Southampton building site hit back at residents yesterday and said: “I have done nothing illegal.”

Developer Eddie DeMello responded after residents in Riviera Crescent, Southampton, blocked their roadway in protest at heavy vehicles continuously driving past their homes on the way to the nearby housing development.

They claimed that construction workers could use another, less public, access path to the development, but alleged that Mr. DeMello had refused.

Yesterday, however, the builder said he would try to minimise disruption to residents. He added: “I have done nothing illegal. I went through all the proper channels. The development was advertised in the paper last June and last October and no one responded or objected. They only had something to say after we had broken ground.”

Mr. DeMello said when he bought the land for the development, it had the right of way he has been using. “When I bought the property from Freddy Yearwood, it came with the right of way to the property and it went through Riviera Crescent,” said Mr. DeMello. “The Department of Planning did not change this when I applied, but if I could have had other access, it would have bought greater value to the condos (that I'm building).

“If the residents had a problem with it, they should have objected throughout the process, not once I had broken ground.”

The development will consist of 12 two-bedroom apartments in three blocks on a two-and-a-half-acre site. Residents have not complained about the development itself, but instead the heavy traffic that is travelling along their narrow lane to reach the site.

They claimed in The Royal Gazette on Tuesday that Mr. DeMello could use another access route to the new development, but said he did not want to because it ran alongside another home that he owns. But when asked about that, he said the right of way to the new development was along Riviera Crescent.

Mr. DeMello assured the residents that he would attempt to keep their area as clear as possible, so that they would be disturbed as little as possible during the construction phase. However, angry resident Barclay Carmichael said yesterday he was disappointed that had not received a response to their complaints from the Ministry of the Environment.

“We have heard nothing in the way of official writing from the Ministry and this is much to our disappointment - for a governmental process that is supposed to be transparent,” said Mr. Carmichael. “We have sought legal advice and we will be looking into those options.

“I think at the end of the day, the residents will be happy with the development,” Mr. DeMello said. “It's like when the Government proposed to change East Broadway, there were so many objections and now everyone says how nice it looks. The objectors didn't have the foresight to envision how things could look or would be.

“Everyone wants to object, but if we stopped building - where are we going to house future generations?”