Noise complaints at all time high (From Daily Echo)

Noise complaints at all time high

1:01pm Wednesday 18th June 2008 in

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COMPLAINTS about noisy neighbours - from barking dogs to loud late night music and even early morning lawnmowers - have reached record levels in Hampshire.

Figures obtained by the Daily Echo reveal that more than 8,000 residents in Southampton, Eastleigh, Winchester, Test Valley and Fareham lodged noise complaints with their local council in the past financial year.

Neighbours turning their booming stereos up to ear-bleeding levels were by far the most common irritant, followed by pets, parties and mechanical equipment.

Sleep-deprived residents in flatcongested Southampton made 5,367 calls to the city council's night-time out of hours noise service in the past financial year, a rise of 23 per cent on the previous year.

A Freedom of Information request also revealed that in the past four years a total of 16,190 complaints had been made to the service, which runs from 9pm until the early morning hours.

Southampton City Council told the Daily Echo that it had seized stereos, surround-sound systems, amplifiers and speakers from 28 of the city's noisiest residents.

Public health services manager Norman Wilson said that neighbours in Southampton were becoming more intolerant and less considerate of each other.

He said: "We aren't going to do anything about one-off parties to be perfectly honest, because we are not in the business of spoiling people's fun. If it's a one-off party I'm afraid you are going to have to live with it for that night.

"But if someone plays loud music all day, every night and has no consideration for their neighbours, well people can only put up with that for so long and that's when they get in touch with us."

Mr Wilson said that communication between neighbours had broken down and that many were unwilling to deal with the situation themselves.

"Quite often neighbours don't want to approach the person who is making the noise because people don't like confrontation," he said.

"People are becoming much more concerned about their safety, they are not quite sure what is going to happen if they knock on someone's door and ask them if they would mind turning the noise down."

Test Valley was the second noisiest region with 1,066 complaints, followed by Winchester (721), Eastleigh (605) and Fareham (535). Fareham Borough Council was also the only council to have seen a reduction in complaints, while Winchester suffered the sharpest rise at 47 per cent.

Council officers are increasingly installing digital monitoring equipment to record noise levels, but despite this measure they have managed to prosecute only a fraction of repeat offenders.

The number of noise complaints in Southampton has risen by 41 per cent four years, but only 11 people were issued fines for noise nuisance in the last financial year, compared to 12 in 2004/05.

Mr Wilson said that this was because the preference was to educate noisy neighbours rather than take them to court.