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It’s sleepless in Westminster!
Borough among UK’s worst for noise
A HARBINGER of tinnitus and cause of neighbourhood revenge fantasies, the thundering clash of a Led Zeppelin guitar chord shaking your partition wall at two in the morning is not a trivial matter.
The psychological and physical strain of living next to noisy neighbours is serious, and given the latest figures, residents in Westminster should stock up on mufflers and bags of sugar.
Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Westminster City Council has received more complaints about noise per head of the population than any other local authority in the UK.
In the past year, environmental health officers received close to 10,000 complaints from despairing residents, which works out at one in 25 – the worst record in the whole country.
The most common complaints include loud stereos and televisions, DIY and noisy family arguments.
Westminster joins Newcastle, Belfast, Edinburgh and six other London boroughs in the top 10 noise hotspots in the UK.
The figures, which emerged from a Freedom of Information request by the insulation company Rockwool, also show that the council issued 344 noise abatement notices, made five confiscations and served one Asbo on noisy households.
Councillor Daniel Astaire, the council’s cabinet member for community safety, said: “Westminster is one of the most densely populated areas in the UK and this kind of cheek-by-jowl living, which so many people enjoy, can create problems with noise. To combat this, we are the only local authority in the UK to run a 24-hour noise team and we respond to 97 per cent of calls within 45 minutes.
“We take a tough line with those who blight the peace – last year we prosecuted 20 people over noise and served 862 noise abatement notices.
“In some ways we are a victim of our own success because we actively encourage people to call and even advertise the phone number on the side of rubbish trucks.
“People call us because they know we are there and will do something about it. It means we get more calls – but it doesn’t mean we have a greater problem.”
Hans Schreuder, managing director of Rockwool, said: “Living with persistent noise is extremely stressful and can have a severe impact on an individuals’ physical and psychological wellbeing.” |
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