AN 88-year-old woman said her Christmas was ruined by workmen demolishing a railway bridge yards from her home.

Eileen Hutchings, who lives beside the Sands Road railway bridge in South Moreton, near Didcot, said she had received compensation from Network Rail for the inconvenience and noise caused by the work but claimed it was a fraction of the sum given to families who live more than 100 yards from the worksite.

Network Rail is replacing the bridge as part of a project to improve clearances on the route between Southampton docks and the West Midlands, via Didcot, Oxford and Banbury, to allow large hi-cube shipping containers to be carried on standard rail wagons, instead of specially-built low-floor wagons.

Work to replace the bridge, which began in October and will continue until April, has cut off access to Mrs Hutchings’s house, forcing her to park in the road and walk through a neighbour’s garden to get to her house.

Her garden is also surrounded by steel barricades and neighbours have complained about other access problems brought about by the closure of Sands Road.

Network Rail demolished the existing Victorian brick bridge on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, when no trains were running.

Mrs Hutchings said that during the work she had to put up with floodlights shining into her bedroom window throughout the night and noise so loud that it shook her bed and made her fridge bump its way across the floor.

She said that because she lives alone, with her cat Pippy, Network Rail offered her just £210 compensation.

Families who live 100 yards away, and admitted they heard little noise, said they were given more than three times the amount.

Mrs Hutchings said: “I think they have done it all wrong. I’m disgusted with the whole issue – I have had a raw deal.

“On Christmas Day the TV kept cutting itself off because of the noise. I was on my own, and I didn’t even have the telly on Christmas Day.

“The floodlights lit up my whole room. I never slept on Christmas Eve or Christmas night. It was so bright I could have done my housework.”

She said the workmen had been as helpful as possible, but she was stuck in her house until the work was over.

A spokesman for Network Rail was unavailable for comment.

Meanwhile, Oxfordshire County Council has admitted it failed to provide a suitable pedestrian route between North and South Moreton during the road closure.

Residents have had to struggle through thick mud to get between the villages, while Network Rail engineers and contractors are able to use a temporary footbridge.

Transport officer Brian Fell told South Moreton Parish Council that no-one at County Hall had taken a “holistic view” of the road closure.

He said: “There’s a lesson to be learned from this and I’m sorry that we have to learn it at the expense of residents.”

Cyclist Caroline Vaughan, of Bear Lane, North Moreton, said: “It’s fine when it’s frosty and snowy, but the mud has been a foot deep.

“The bikes literally stick in it. It’s a quagmire.”

didcot@oxfordmail.co.uk