A Romford woman says she is losing sleep due to a nearby supermarket, which she claims receives noisy deliveries into the early hours of the morning.

Rhonda May’s Regarth Avenue home overlooks Lidl in Atlanta Boulevard and she alleges the supermarket routinely gets deliveries from large lorries well after 11pm and sometimes as late as 2am.

Delivery restrictions on supermarkets are currently relaxed as a result of a government policy to tackle supply chain problems in the UK, meaning supermarkets and food retailers can take deliveries later than would otherwise be allowed.

However, Rhonda, 63, claims the problem has been going on for a number of years and means that she and her neighbours sleep “terribly”.

Normally, the supermarket’s planning permission allows deliveries between 7am and 9pm from Monday to Saturday and between 10am and 5pm on Sundays and bank or public holidays.

Rhonda said Havering Council had “not been much help”.

“I keep saying to the council 'can you please come around and see how close to my property the actual lorries are?'

"But they won’t – no one will come around,” she said.

Council leader Cllr Damian White noted the government’s policy on deliveries, while emphasising that the council “understand how distressing this must be to residents".

“We will be speaking directly with the owners to advise them of the disruption their late deliveries are causing and ask that they keep deliveries as close to licensed times as possible,” he said.

A Lidl spokesperson said the company was committed to ensuring stores were fully stocked and said it followed government guidelines on deliveries.

“It’s always our aim to keep disruption to an absolute minimum and we would therefore like to apologise for any inconvenience caused,” they added.

“We would also like to reassure our neighbours that the matter has been raised with the relevant teams and is being looked into as a priority.”

Rhonda has previously had trouble with the store, telling the Recorder in 2015 that construction work to refurbish and expand the shop front had “wrecked her life”.

The government’s relaxation of delivery restrictions for supermarkets are in place until September, but Romford’s Lidl is currently seeking to amend its planning permission (P2118.21) to allow deliveries between 7am and 11pm on Monday to Saturday and 10am to 5pm on Sunday and bank or public holidays.

A decision on this is expected by February 18.