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 |  | Jennifer McCabe joins Stratford District Council's Noise Team for an evening and sees just how loud things can get. Published in conjunction with the Stratford Herald newspaper.
With the issue of noisy neighbours becoming ever more prevalent, the team's job to patrol the area making routine calls to known trouble spots and responding immediately to complaints through the call centre has become even more important.
Mike Yapp and Andrew Bilbrough part of a team of eight which works on weekend evenings and over the last 21 weekends, has responded to 72 calls.
"People think it's all about raves but it's usually the bread and butter stuff like industrial fans, 24 hour pumps, barking dogs and noisy kids. But they all affect people. If people have their sleep disturbed, they can get very wound up, understandably."
Andrew recalled his funniest - and most embarrassing - complaint being a romantic couple whose bedroom noises were disturbing their neighbours. Not only that, but one of the couple, of Scottish descent, had a tendency to play the bagpipes afterwards.
"It was a difficult subject to broach, but they took it well. They saw the funny side," Andrew said.
They estimated that only about 10% of the calls they receive are genuine, bona fide complaints and the genuine complainants are often the least fussy about the situation despite the noise usually being horrendous.
But with many complaints they can often disprove the problem and are amused when the equipment they leave in complainants' bedrooms to monitor offending noise levels detects snoring. "The noise can't be that bad if they've gone to sleep!" Andrew said.
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The noise generated is measured by a high-tech piece of hand-held equipment which is sensitive enough to hear a pin drop and allows noise officers to download data on to a computer.
That noise level is compared to the normal background noise and the team decides whether or not it is acceptable.
Andrew said: "It's very subjective and we take the circumstances into consideration. You would not expect the same noise levels in student accommodation and an old people's home, and we look at how often the noise occurs, whether it's during the day or night, things like that.
听"We're human beings too"
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Rather than break down doors and charge in flashing their Authority to Enter cards, the team use their experience to handle situations firmly but in a calm manner, always seeking co-operation.
"We dress casually and use our own cars. We want to let them know we're human beings too," Mike said.
"We are often more sympathetic to the person being complained about because it can often spark a chain reaction of complaints, a neighbourhood war as it were. We try to iron out the problem so we don't have to keep coming back to the same street," Andrew added.
| 听 |  | Parties and clubs aren't necessarily closed down if there's too much noise
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Their undercover work in pubs also involves close liaison with licensing officers to ensure the establishment has an appropriate licence.
"In most cases, we can ask them to close their doors and windows and that makes all the difference. We also encourage licensees to install noise limiters which will cut off the electric when it gets too loud.
"They could bypass the system if they wanted to but it's just more evidence for us if we do get complaints that it's too loud," Mike said.
He added that potential noise problems could easily be resolved with a bit of careful planning. "We advise that if you're having a party, tell your neighbours what time you expect it to finish so they know what to expect."
Anyone who would like to leave details of keyholders with the district council should contact them on 01789 260834. If you have a noise complaint between 9pm and 1am, you can contact the noise team on 01789 414066.
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