9:49am Wednesday 17th June 2009
By Ash Bolton
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.
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