Rocky the Rooster's cock-a-doodle-do upsetting neighbours in the New Forest (From Daily Echo)
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Rocky the Rooster's cock-a-doodle-do upsetting neighbours in the New Forest
9:49am Wednesday 17th June 2009 in
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- By Ash Bolton » Senior Winchester Reporter
FOR some he is nature’s answer to an alarm clock.
But for other disgruntled neighbours in a quiet Hampshire neighbourhood Rocky the Rooster has become public enemy number one.
For Rocky’s early morning cocka- doodle-doos in Marchwood have not only been waking residents, but they have now got the attention of the council’s environmental health team.
Following complaints from neighbours council bosses in the New Forest have warned Rocky’s owner that they could prosecute him if he fails to gag the threeyear- old rooster.
To silence his cockerel, Paul Wilton has now blacked out the windows of Rocky’s shed.
And if he doesn’t keep Rocky quiet he could end up with a £5,000 fine.
Paul, who has been keeping chickens as a hobby since he was 12, said: “If you live in the countryside you have got to expect the noise.
“If you can put up with the A326 then this is nothing. I think I would rather listen to a cockerel than a heavy goods vehicle rumbling down the road waking me up.
Rocky is only doing what nature intended. He’s not overly noisy.”
Paul, 51, of Marshfields Close, moved Rocky and his 45 wives to the field six months ago from another enclosure 50 yards away as the pasture was more suitable.
He added: “If I can’t shut him up I will have to move him back to where he was. But it’s expensive for the sake of someone shutting a window.”
Among the neighbours not happy with Rocky’s early morning calls is nurse Samantha Knowles.
The 25-year-old said: “It wakes me up. He carries on all day. He doesn’t have to get rid of him, just keep him in until later in the morning. I work day and night shifts so the last thing I want to hear after a shift is a rooster going off on one.”
Her mum Coleen Knowles, 56, added: “It’s horrendous. It starts at daybreak and is constant every few minutes. It’s really bad but it has got better this week.”
Fellow neighbour Mike Presley, 66, said: “The cockerel never wakes me up. It’s the country.
What do people expect?
You can’t put cotton wool in his mouth.”
New Forest District Council Environmental Health Officer Edward Vandyck, said: “He has been advised to leave his birds in their darkened shed until later in the morning to stop Rocky’s 4am morning call.
Diary forms have been sent to complainants and if the alleged disturbance continues, officers will take action.”
If prosecuted Paul could be fined a maximum of £5,000 and a further maximum £500 a day for every day the noise continues.
Comments(16)
Linesman
says...
10:02am Wed 17 Jun 09
They should think themselves lucky that they do not have impaired hearing!
COOPER PIKEY
says...
11:46am Wed 17 Jun 09
Paramjit Bahia
says...
12:37pm Wed 17 Jun 09
If objectors do not like the sounds of nature why do they not move into some of the pigeon holes known as flats in some city centre?
southy
says...
1:12pm Wed 17 Jun 09
Locksheathen
says...
1:22pm Wed 17 Jun 09
Saintbob
says...
1:36pm Wed 17 Jun 09
crazywhowho
says...
1:50pm Wed 17 Jun 09
bullarboy
says...
2:02pm Wed 17 Jun 09
The Mad Dog
says...
2:04pm Wed 17 Jun 09
To all those who complained, this is the 21st century, we are surrounded by noise, the A326 is probably the main source right down the Waterside. It is only a chicken doing what nature intended, get a grip or go and live elsewhwere.
Locksheathen
says...
2:04pm Wed 17 Jun 09
Linesman
says...
2:38pm Wed 17 Jun 09
Locksheathen wrote:Is it anyone you know?
My wife likes to be awoken by a big **** in the morning.
S!mon
says...
3:51pm Wed 17 Jun 09
Linesman wrote:Someone acting like a d-ick? lol
Locksheathen wrote: My wife likes to be awoken by a big **** in the morning.Is it anyone you know?
jew
says...
6:55pm Wed 17 Jun 09
Linesman
says...
7:28pm Wed 17 Jun 09
S!mon wrote:With the surname Head, no doubt!
Linesman wrote:Someone acting like a d-ick? lolLocksheathen wrote: My wife likes to be awoken by a big **** in the morning.Is it anyone you know?
X Old Bill
says...
7:35pm Wed 17 Jun 09
What I noticed over the years was that our perception of noise varies; At 5 or 6 am a small flock of geese if deafening, two hours later and the traffic drowns it out.
Flat dwelling is mentioned by Paramjit Bahia, above. I have encountered owners of a brand new block of flats complaining about 100 year old established trees in the grounds of an old house next door. Obviously people do not notice their surroundings when they view.
Similarly I came across a man who within weeks of moving into a flat next to a main line railway station complained about the noise of trains.
Wherever they go these people seem destined to complain, about anything!
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Shoong says...
9:52am Wed 17 Jun 09