Senior citizens living near Tenby's railway track are up in arms about continual late-night noise disturbance caused by engineering work which has been taking place on the line since the end of the summer.

Residents of Tyssul Court, who live opposite the rail track, have become increasingly disgruntled about the noise levels that Network Rail's engineers have caused into the early hours of the morning over weekend periods.

"Sometimes they don't start work on a weekend until 11 pm at night and then continue right through until 3 to 4 am. With the constant noise of the workers' generator and engineering trains, it's proving very disruptive for people's' sleep," explained resident Ted Shepherd.

"It's most disrespectful, too, that that they have failed to notify any of us living in the area of when this work is taking place, which I've been told by one of the workers looks set to continue for a good few more weeks."

Mr. Shepherd 'phoned Network Rail's national helpline to complain about the issue and ask why no notice of the work had been given. He even suggested to them that it would be more sensible to close the rail line earlier on the Sunday so that the works could be carried out at a more suitable time.

A community relations advisor sent the following response to Mr. Shepherd and explained that his concerns had been forwarded to Network Rail's maintenance department: 'Although we are not legally obliged to provide advance notification of our works, our engineering teams and contractors are requested as a courtesy to advise local residents of noisy or disruptive works on the railway by distributing hand-delivered 'noise notices' explaining the nature and duration of the works.

'I would like to assure you that Network Rail acknowledges that our works may cause a degree of disruption to line-side neighbours, and that we make a continuous effort to alleviate intrusion as far as possible.

'We are, however, contractually obliged to provide train operators with designated passenger and freight paths, which is why much of our work takes place at night or on weekends when there are significantly reduced traffic levels, and hence less disruption to train services when line closures are required to carry out our works', the letter added.

Mr. Shepherd has since contacted Pembrokeshire County Council's pollution control and licensing team over the matter.

"Someone should come down and record the noise level, as it's unacceptable during the early hours of the morning," stressed Mr. Shepherd.