THE Co-op has been warned it will need to be more quiet building its latest Oxfordshire store.

A specialist acoustic testing company has told the supermarket to put extra mitigation in place to avoid keeping neighbours awake at night in Kingston Bagpuize near Abingdon.

The Co-op won planning permission earlier this year to build a 2,500sq ft store with bakery and ‘a focus on fresh health foods’ in the former Hinds Head pub.

Work is already under way on the £600,000 build and the store is due to open ‘towards the end of the year’, but as part of an agreement with Vale of White Horse District Council when the project was given permission, the Co-op has now commissioned the new construction noise assessment – and been told to pipe down.

After testing the current noise levels, experts from Airtight & Noisecheck Limited wrote in their report that 'further mitigation measures will be required to ensure the plant should not have an adverse impact on the residential dwellings... during the late evening and night time'.

Among their suggested remedies were 'enclosing the plant within a plant room' and mounting loud machinery on 'anti-vibration mounts'.