Images sent by Independent.ie reader show cars lining up for doughnuts after dark.

Angry Blanchardstown residents living beside the new Krispy Kreme drive-thru have spoken about their frustration over late night noise and “honking cars”.

The new outlet, a branch of the UK doughnut chain, opened last Wednesday and operates on a 24/7 basis with a drive-thru facility.

Hundreds of people queued up for a sweet treat on opening day, but some locals claim that the doughnut craze hasn’t stopped since.

Footage shared with Independent.ie shows cars beeping their horns as they join the line for doughnuts after 11pm, with residents claiming it has been keeping them up throughout the night.

“Since the grand opening we haven’t had proper sleep at night. We have jobs, kids, schools, and so many elderly people living here as well,” one Grove Park resident told Independent.ie.

“Every night the queue for doughnuts is unbelievable - lights, noises, pollution and horns. All streets blocked and all cars honking at once. All night, every night.”

Another resident, Salim Sanehi added: “The noise has been happening every single night since the grand opening.

“My apartment has another balcony that faces the entire car park, so our entire apartment gets hit with the noise.”

Some locals have now joined together to create a Facebook group called to tackle the noise and are calling for the opening hours to be changed.

“I’ve nothing against the company but it shouldn’t be open 24/7 if they can’t manage the traffic and noise,” group member Ben Raymond from Blanchardstown told Independent.ie.

“They should take the 24 hours away and put a traffic management system in place. I live down the road and it’s been waking children up in the area.”

The group are also hoping to tackle the day-time traffic, as a typical twenty-minute drive took an hour and a half one morning, Ben says.

Local councillor Ted Leddy said he was aware of complaints from residents, and said he wasn’t expecting the doughnut “phenomenon” to take over Blanchardstown.

“I have heard reports, I was at the opening and I have to say I wasn’t prepared for the phenomenon it is,” Mr Leddy told Independent.ie.

“I don’t think the management in charge of traffic control were prepared either.”

Mr Leddy added that there are other 24/7 stores in the area that haven’t appeared to cause problems.

“Being open 24/7 is part of the problem, I mean there are other 24/7 stores in the centre, but I’m not sure what it is with doughnuts.”

A spokesperson for Krispy Kreme told Independent.ie that they were aware of "a small number of customers" beeping their horns and apologised to residents.

"Following from the well-received opening of our new store in Blanchardstown Centre, we are aware that a small number of customers using the drive-thru service have been beeping their car horns late at night," they said.

"We are naturally asking them to stop and we do apologise to local residents who are affected by this."

The spokesperson added that they are working on getting "signage" in an attempt to tackle the noise, and management to control the traffic.

"To help encourage drivers to be respectful of residents we are getting signage made asking them to be quiet in the area and looking into other options to improve the situation.

"We are also engaging with the centre management team to control traffic congestion in the store vicinity. We are working to prevent this and we ask all customers coming to the drive thru to respect the area and the residents who live nearby."

Fingal County Council told Independent.ie it had received one complaint relating to the noise.

“The Noise and Air Pollution Section of Fingal County Council has received one complaint from a local resident concerning noise from this premises. This complaint is currently under investigation.”

Online Editors