We live underneath Spaghetti Junction motorway – we’ve got our own ‘beach’…we’re proud to live here

RESIDENTS living under the Spaghetti Junction motorway say they have their own “beach” – and are proud to live there.

The Gravelly Hill interchange near Birmingham is the UK’s busiest junction – with 200,000 motors hurtling through it every day.

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But under the five tangled levels of traffic and 559 concrete columns is a cluster of family homes.

Dad-of-one Brian Thomas, 45, joked that the neighbourhood comes with its own “beach” – a pile of industrial sand beneath the flyover.

He said: “I don’t mind it, I find the traffic quite soothing. You get used to it and it’s got good transport links as you can imagine.

“We’ve also got our own beach, of sorts. What more could you want?

“It’s a landmark recognised across the country. I’m sort of proud to live near here.”

Shopkeeper Aqeel Naeem, 35, said: “I don’t live far from here at all, have done for 10 years.

“It doesn’t bother me. I actually enjoy it otherwise it gets quiet.

“The road is mostly busy from people who want to take the motorway to get off of it. It can get quite dusty.

“A good thing is that you can tell someone the direction to the business, it acts as a landmark.”

SPAGHETTI CAR-BONANZA

Mum-of-two Meeka, 33, said: “It did bother me at first that it was this close but it’s got triple glazing so you can’t hear it.

“I only hear the lorries honking their horn or when an ambulance goes past.

“It’s not all the time. It doesn’t bother me so much now.

“I don’t really think about pollution at all. There’s a wooded bit so there’s a section that absorbs the noise.

“Because there’s a lot of road traffic there are a few homeless people who stand by the lights.

“But I’ve been woken up by the racers in the night who go speeding by.

“I can hear them racing. They must be doing it on the motorway.”

UP THE JUNCTION

Dad-of-two Mark McKinley, 52, said: “Noise can be an issue in the evening.

“It’s more of an issue when you get the racing in the evening. There’s been a few accidents.

“If you don’t hear sirens, you get worried. You get used to it.

“It’s constant. The wagons don’t stop on the M6. We’ve got all the roads here, it’s a tangled mess of everything here.

“We get a lot of dirt that comes off the traffic. I have a brand new car and I have to clean it every day.

“The amount of dust and rubbish coming off of it is ridiculous.”

He added: “If someone was to crash off there they’d have to dodge to avoid the house.

“You get people throwing rubbish off. You get a lot of cars that have overheated and dumped on our road.

“When Aston Villa play it gets rammed with cars. People park here, they dump the cars everywhere.

“They literally park straight across all the time

“I have been woken up early when they toot their horns early or sirens.”

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