But the Ambience that envelops his home has nothing to do with a pleasant atmosphere and is not a thing of dreams, but nightmares.

For Mr Colvin and his neighbours, the only Ambience they know is a half-built shopping and residential development which towers over their lives.

Like a jail, they are encased by it, it steals their afternoon sun and they say their properties and fences are being sunk by it.

Now, almost four years after the Fairy Meadow development was approved by Wollongong City Council, the residents are still fighting.

This week they upped the ante and complained to the council's administrators, arguing the developer, a Belmorgan property group company, had made the site unsafe.

Residents' advocate Rod Plant claimed the development's walls had been built up to boundary lines, that unsatisfactory retaining walls had caused fences and garages to deteriorate, and that the building was altogether "intrusive".

He said residents had expressed concerns about the project since it was first proposed but had become particularly upset with the work around their homes over the past year.

Residents in a villa complex next to the site yesterday agreed with the summation when approached by the Mercury.

Laurie Byrne, from across the road, said others in the street also felt at risk because Ambience had taken over the footpath with junk.

"I've moved a whole lot of it, but the older women still walk on the road because they don't feel it's safe under the hoarding," he said.

The administrators have asked the council's officers to prepare a report by April 28 on the complaints.

Administrator Gabrielle Kibble said she wanted to see a report that "deals with all the issues that have been raised so we can have all the facts".

"I would be happy to inspect the site before the report comes back to council," she said.

But Mr Colvin, who lived in his villa before Ambience, is pessimistic about the process and has almost given up.