Noise nuisance blights hundreds

ENVIRONMENTAL health officers in Ipswich were called out to more than 300 cases of noise nuisance in 2006 according to figured obtained by The Evening Star.

The revelation comes the day after noisy neighbour Steven Boyd was fined £300 after disturbing an entire block of flats by playing Elvis Presley so loud that an entire block of flats was disturbed.

Figures obtained by the Star under Freedom of Information legislation shows that during 2006 environmental health officers were called to 269 domestic incidents in the town and 66 commercial incidents.

Of these cases 12 were referred to the council's legal department for possible prosecution. Four cases were withdrawn before they came to court and three resulted in a conditional discharge.

The other five cases resulted in fines ranging from £50 to £600.

The number of cases in Ipswich fell last year - in 2005 there were 389 domestic cases and 54 commercial cases.

They resulted in 25 referrals to the legal department. Of these four were withdrawn before they came to court, three resulted in a conditional discharge and the remainder resulted in fines ranging from £10 to £500.

In Babergh there were 348 complaints between April 2006 and April 2007 - up from 283 the previous year.

Only one of these resulted in a prosecution - an offender was fined £100 and ordered to pay £475 costs in November 2005.

Suffolk Coastal had 408 complaints about domestic noise and 305 about commercial premises during 2006/7, up from 311 domestic and 290 commercial complaints the previous year.

There were four noise abatement notices served during these two years, but no prosecutions.

In Mid Suffolk there were 168 domestic cases and 104 commercial cases in 2006, up from 133 domestic and 84 commercial cases the previous year.

During 2006/07 four cases were prosecuted and dealt with by way of a caution and costs, and in 2005 there was one prosecution resulting in a fine of £5,000.