Episode 12 Noise Squad

All over the UK, millions of people just like you and me

are being driven up the wall by anti-social nuisance noise.

Not concerned about their neighbours, what time of night it is or nothing like that.

It's because you feel completely unable to do anything about it,

that's what gets you.

Persistent parties...

..aggravating alarms...

CAR ALARM WHINES

..and banging builders.

They're keeping us awake, disturbing our peace and quiet

and driving us to despair.

It's making me feel

I don't seem to have much rights as a human being, really.

But the fightback is on.

We're getting complaints about the noise.

Across the country, dedicated enforcement teams

are getting to grips with nuisance noise 24/7.

I'm searching for a health and safety reason to give you permission,

but I can't find one.

It's just boom, boom, boom.

Enough is enough. It's time to put an end to nuisance noise.

I have to caution you, OK?

It's time to meet the no-nonsense Noise Squad.

Being driven to distraction on today's show -

a local resident is seriously fed up with noisy building work.

It actually sounds like it's inside the pillars

and inside the cupboards, and that, you know,

there's someone inside your house working, it's so loud.

Officers are called to deal with a complaint about a noisy nightclub.

Every night till the early hours.

Relentless, non-stop noise that something could be done about.

And man's best friend is in the dog house.

-DOG BARKS

-Shut up!

We've had a complaint about a dog from this address barking a lot.

-Barking?

-Yeah.

Westminster in the heart of London

is home to the country's biggest and busiest Noise Squad.

Last year, on average, the council's team of noise enforcement officers

dealt with over 50 complaints a day, and during the day

one of the biggest headaches are noisy builders.

It's just noise after noise, and it's been every weekend

for the last six to eight weeks. It's just too much.

The weekend's meant to be for everybody to relax,

but all they do is want to make noise.

Builders might be driving people up the wall,

but the council's Noise Squad patrol the streets

clamping down on illegal nuisance noise from building sites.

We could prosecute you. If we catch you working

and doing drilling and things, we will prosecute you.

It's Saturday, and noise enforcement officer Steve Pennington

is on his way to deal with a complaint about noisy builders.

I just don't think that a lot of contractors realise

how annoying and upsetting their noise is.

Here in Westminster, noisy building work with heavy machinery

can only take place between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday

and between 8am and 1pm on a Saturday.

Anything outside these hours or on a bank holiday is illegal.

There have been 11 complaints from three different people about the site Steve's come to see,

but as no noise officer

has been able to witness any nuisance noise first-hand,

they've not been able to take any action.

That's the back of the new courts, the magistrates' court,

and this is where they've sliced off the old houses

which are just angle-ground straight down.

There was no response from the complainant for this one, anyway,

so...where are we? Homer Street next.

MACHINE WHIRRS IN THE DISTANCE

Ooh, I can hear something.

Don't know what that is.

Don't know where it's coming from, cos that's padlocked.

Or is it padlocked?

There are two projects taking place here.

One is to build new law courts, which is the grey building

you can see at the back, and the other to build flats

between the law courts and the existing building here on the right.

The complaint Steve has received is about the work on the law courts,

but with no more noise to be heard, he decides to head off.

As he does, though, he bumps into Will, who called

to complain about work taking place after 1pm on a Saturday.

They said they were tarmacking inside there.

-She said to me, "Don't worry, we'll be finished at 1pm."

-Right.

I work at home. I was working, and at about 1.10pm,

I came out and the tarmac machine was going up and down the mews.

I asked what time they were finishing, and the guys said,

"It's nothing to do with us," so I asked to see the foreman.

And I just asked why they were still working.

And she said, "Oh, we came out at 1pm, and it's nearly finished."

I said, "You're avoiding the question.

"Why are you carrying on after 1pm?"

And they wouldn't really answer the question.

-What time was this at?

-This was about 1.30pm.

Will was so frustrated that he took footage on his phone of work

he says was taking place after 1pm today.

I said, "Look, I'm not going to move."

They'd reversed the tarmac lorry up to refill the machine that lays the tarmac.

I said, "I'm not going to move, you've got to stop."

They had no choice. They told them to pack up. This was about 1.40pm.

But then the steamroller kept going after they'd told them to stop.

I was standing there watching him. When he saw me actually taking the footage,

he said, "Right, you've got to stop." It was between 1.40pm and 1.45pm.

How long are they here for until they finish?

-Another year, is it?

-It'll be about another year.

All right, well, keep calling us.

This is a difficult case for Steve and his colleagues.

As the mobile phone footage wouldn't be acceptable evidence in court

and he hasn't witnessed any nuisance noise taking place himself,

there's nothing he can do today.

For his part, Will claims that noise from both building projects

is seriously affecting his life.

I work at home, and the noise - you can't make any phone calls.

Even if the TV's on,

it's so loud, you can't actually hear the TV.

So it's completely disruptive. You can't make phone calls,

you can't concentrate.

It completely interferes with trying to get any work done.

At one point, even being objective, it was like a small earthquake.

It wasn't just us feeling the vibrations.

On bookshelves, things were moving around. Slightly.

It's unbelievable.

Steve might not have been able to take any action today,

but this isn't the last time he'll be seeing Will.

When you're on the party wall, it drives you insane.

FAINT GRINDING NOISE

It's two or three times louder than that.

He's going to be called back to deal with a complaint

about the other building site.

Every night across the UK, people switch off the TV,

turn out the lights and head for bed,

only to kept awake by sounds like this...

MUSIC AND CHATTER

And this...

MUSIC

In York, the county town of Yorkshire,

the council's Noise Squad are used to dealing with boisterous bashes.

I want it turned off externally and taken inside.

And rowdy revellers.

You can't tell them to shut up.

If it starts getting a bit noisy, keep an eye on it

-and ask a few people to go in.

-I'll tell them to be quiet.

Tonight, Helen Howlett and Ian Gray are working the night shift,

and between them, they've got plenty of experience of dealing with

antisocial nuisance noise.

It's Wednesday night

and that's a big night for students looking to party,

as many of the city's pubs and clubs

run midweek promotions to attract customers.

The city is home to over 20,000 students,

so things can often get rowdy, and Ian and Helen are on their way

to investigate a complaint about an allegedly noisy club.

We've had complaints regarding one of the nightclubs

where there's lots of queuing outside, the students are noisy,

but to let the queue into the premises,

they're leaving the doors open,

so there's often loud music coming out of the club

while the students are queuing up and getting into the nightclub.

This isn't the first time

the city's Noise Squad have received complaints about this club.

We have had problems historically with this premises.

This is a new complaint.

It's not a complainant's property we've been to before,

so it'll be interesting to see whether they are affected

and exactly how badly they are affected.

There are plenty of bars and clubs in this area,

and most of the flats are listed buildings,

so double-glazing isn't allowed.

As far as noise is concerned, it's not a great mix.

We don't have an open notice on the premises, no.

We have served one a couple of years ago, but that's not relevant,

because the business has changed hands since, so it's a case of

starting from scratch, investigating and seeing what we find.

As the crowds start to build outside the club,

Helen and Ian go to visit a complainant who's called them in.

11pm is usually the time when it starts to pick up,

-would you say?

-It started a bit earlier tonight, but usually, yeah.

There are two types of noise that are causing an annoyance -

the thumping bass from the dance floor

and the shouting and chatter from the queue.

Much bigger queues. They must be doing real big drinks specials

or something, because it's definitely changed,

and got a lot worse, in the noise.

Do you think it's the music that's more, as well as the queues or both?

The music's loud as well as the queues, yeah.

What we need to do while we're here is monitor it for a period of time

and make a few notes of what we can hear.

We're mindful of the fact that there are licensing conditions on the licence,

so anything that we find tonight that is possibly a breach of the licence,

we'll feed that to our colleagues in licensing enforcement.

It might be more appropriate for them to deal with the licence.

It's just a case of spending the time to listen and experience

what you normally listen to on a Wednesday night.

Different councils deal with nuisance noise

in slightly different ways.

Here in York, if Ian and Helen witness a problem,

they have the power to serve the club's owner

with a noise abatement notice.

This is a legal notice

which requires the owner to sort the problem.

If they don't, the Noise Squad could start legal proceedings,

which may lead to fines and even the venue losing its licence.

Ian and Helen have to decide if the noise could be reasonably said

to be causing a nuisance to this homeowner.

We're not using any equipment, basically.

We'll just have a listen and make an assessment, really,

as to whether we feel it would be enough to disturb somebody's sleep.

It's not quite straightforward for the noise on the street.

That's something which, under the licensing conditions which they've got,

the doorman should be at least controlling the queue

and making sure that it's not causing a disturbance.

In terms of our legislation, we can deal with the noise itself

coming from the premises such as the loudness of the music.

For her part, this resident has had an earful.

It's a very noisy street, which we're used to,

but this is above and beyond, and we've got kids

that go to school the next day, and we have to get up for work.

Every night till the early hours, relentless non-stop noise

that something could be done about,

so, you know, it's unreasonable noise.

Well, I'd just really like the club to turn its music down

and get its people in the doors faster, really.

I don't want to be a killjoy or ruin anyone's fun,

but I'd just like them to do it all a bit faster

and a bit more efficiently and a bit more quietly.

Under the terms of their licence, the club are responsible

for people coming into and leaving their premises as quietly as possible.

If they don't do this, Ian and Helen could refer them

to the licensing department of the council.

There is a licensing condition that they need to be outside

monitoring noise levels and dealing with noise.

They should be recording when they're doing those checks

and what actions they've done as a result of the checks, if necessary.

So the best thing to do is to go on the night

and ask to see those records on the night

rather than ask them a couple of days later.

Plus, I'd like to know where the bass beat is coming from that we can hear.

There's a number of rooms in the premises -

the basement and also they play music on the first floor,

so we can't quite tell where it's coming from,

so it'd be worth visiting just to find that out as well.

York has two universities, and they've run a shush campaign.

The aim is to keep noise levels from partying students down

by giving them a sweet distraction.

They've been giving out lollies at the end of the night,

so instead of the students walking down the street

shouting, screaming and having fun,

most of them have a lolly in their mouth,

which obviously helps keep them a bit quieter.

So that was the centrepiece of their campaign.

There are no lollies in this queue tonight.

Ian and Helen have decided it's time to act,

and this lady is delighted

that she might be able to get some sweet dreams.

Well, I'm just glad that somebody's listened to us, you know,

that something's sort of being done about it.

Having decided there's a problem, Helen and Ian

head off to take action.

We'll be with them later as they confront the manager

and try to get this noisy nightclub to quieten down.

So we've been in their house for an hour this evening

and we can hear the bass beat from here inside their property.

With new flats, offices and hotels being built all year round in Westminster,

the council's Noise Squad are well used

to dealing with complaints about noisy builders.

Today, Steve Pennington is on his way

to deal with a case that's just come in.

I've just had an urgent call from one of the other officers

that she's had quite a few complaints

about some scaffolders

and asking if we can attend.

The noise from the scaffolding is extremely unpleasant.

I don't think it's possible to do scaffolding quietly.

We have people that have tried, and it's just not easy.

The poles themselves make a hell of a noise.

It's Sunday, and here in Westminster,

that means there's no noisy building work allowed by law

without prior permission from the council.

When Steve arrives at the site, though,

it's clear that work has been going on.

The first job is to find whoever is in charge.

Morning. Not too bad. I'm from the council.

-The council?

-Yeah, is the boss about?

-Anyone?

-Anyone.

Are you the boss?

Steve from the council. Someone's complained about working on a Sunday,

so I've come round to have a word and see if there's any reason why you're doing it on a Sunday.

Is there any health and safety reason?

Or is it just that it's convenient to the client?

The Noise Squad can allow noisy work like scaffolding if there's a proper health and safety reason for it.

On busy streets, scaffolding is often done at night when there are less people about.

-We have scaffolding in Oxford Street, and you can only do it after midnight.

-After midnight? Really?

They won't let you do it - it's health and safety.

You've got thousands of people walking up and down.

But residential areas, unless there's a health and safety reason,

like it's dangerous for people, you can't do it on a Sunday.

It's got to be done Monday to Friday.

In this instance, there's no safety reason for the scaffolders to be working on a Sunday.

They say they need up to a couple of hours to finish off. That's too long for Steve.

That's too much. If it was going to be ten minutes,

just finishing off, making it safe, fair enough,

but two hours is too much. I'm searching for a health and safety reason

to give you permission to do it, but I just can't find one.

If you can make it safe, then. Thanks very much, guys. Cheers.

The scaffolders claim that it's safer to do the job at the weekend.

From Monday to Friday it's a busy road.

People are walking.

We can't strike, because we have to load the trailer, you know?

It's not very safe if you go in with the tube.

You have to put one, one person have to stand over here

on the pavement and have to say "Go, stop, go, stop,"

you know what I mean?

On a quiet road like this, Steve's decided

there's no health and safety reason for the work to be done on a Sunday,

and the scaffolders are reasonable and cooperative.

Yeah, sorry about someone complaining.

We're just trying to earn a dollar, we've all got mortgages to pay.

The scaffolding is made safe, and it's a result for Steve.

Yeah, that went really well.

The problem is that when we arrived, there was absolutely nothing

going on, so it was a bit difficult to assess how bad it was.

But looking around, I could see there were scaffold poles

leaning up against the side of the lorry, which is always noisy.

In order to take action, Noise Squad officers have to witness

nuisance noise first hand.

If Steve had heard the workmen making a racket,

he could have served them with a notice which would have

legally obliged them to stop any noise.

As he didn't actually hear anything, he's decided not to serve a notice.

The problem is that if you start serving notices,

people have a right of appeal which means going to court.

So anything that you've said

and anything that you've done, you can be cross-examined on.

So, questions like, how far away could you hear the noise?

Was it audible at the site boundary?

What were they doing? All this information

you've got to have notes on if you're going to serve a notice.

Because you've got to justify 100% why you served that notice

and what your evidence was.

If you haven't got that, you're wasting time and money

and resources, which the council just does not have,

so everything's got to be done properly and by the book.

Steve didn't serve a notice, but he did make sure there was

no noise coming from the site for the rest of the day.

There were no more complaints and no further action was needed.

Steve might have sorted these scaffolders,

but he's not finished with noisy builders just yet.

He has to deal with another complaint from Will

who's seriously hacked off with the building work

taking place at the back of his flat.

10.10am, there was drilling and heavy hammering on the party wall

that was reverberating straight through the house.

And in York, officers confront the manager of a noisy nightclub.

So we've been in their house for an hour this evening

and we can hear the bass beat from here inside their property.

All across the UK, people are being driven barking mad

by uncontrolled barking dogs.

I just feel cross and angry and upset at the moment.

Any slight noise like walking up and down the stairs,

shutting the door, it barks, barks, barks and it doesnae stop.

It's just so irritating, the wee annoying bark.

It's not a normal dog. It's like an alien.

Most dogs bark, and if it's at the postie, the binman

or when it's out and about on a walk, that's not a problem.

Barking only becomes a nuisance when it's prolonged and on your property.

The most annoying night of my life was when dogs kept barking at night

and I was staying in a very expensive hotel

and I couldn't get rid of the noise of the dogs.

In Belfast, the council's Noise Squad get plenty of complaints

about barking dogs, but they don't have to tackle this problem alone.

Brenda is one of nine dog wardens in Belfast,

and she and the team work closely with the city's Noise Squad.

If they've come across barking complaints from night-time noise,

then they would refer them to us if there's a problem there

that we haven't been out to before within the past six months.

So initially, we would call out to dog owners and give advice.

We'd also go to the person who's made the complaint

to ask them for more information.

Then after we've been to see the owner and given advice,

we would contact the person who's made the complaint again

after a couple of weeks

to see if there's been an improvement in the situation at all.

If they feel there is an improvement, then it gets closed.

If they feel that nothing has been done or if it's not improved,

then we can get it referred back to noise again.

Today, Brenda's on shift with Kelly,

and they're heading out to meet some owners

whose dogs have attracted some complaints.

The problem with barking dogs

is they're more persistent than a lot of other noise complaints

where people ring us when it's been going on for several weeks.

Parties are more random and sporadic,

whereas if a dog has got a behavioural problem,

it'll need addressed and it'll take time to fix it

as opposed to just turning off a hi-fi.

Part of Brenda and Kelly's job is to offer practical solutions

to stop dogs barking, and they're armed with plenty of advice.

Basic advice on what causes a dog to bark

and some of the behavioural problems, like separation anxiety,

which is generally a dog that barks and howls when it's left on its own.

Which is a very common thing,

usually due to lack of training as a pup.

Kelly and Brenda arrive to deal with their first case.

DOG BARKS

Shut up, be quiet.

We've had a complaint about a dog from this address barking a lot.

-Barking?

-Yeah.

Now, our information on it is limited because we haven't been able

to get in contact with the person who's made the complaint.

Would your dog bark much?

The dog owner explains that her dogs bark

when they first step outside the property to go for a walk.

The barking's only really a problem when it's on your property.

It's not whenever you're walking her or anything,

it's only when it's on your property.

-When it's here?

-Yes.

Does she bark whenever she's on your property,

when she's in your house?

-Generally, no.

-No? Not that you're aware of?

No, generally, no. She might cry a bit if I leave her,

she might howl a bit if you leave her,

but other than that...

It sounds like this lady's dogs

might suffer from separation anxiety.

If you've got dogs and want to keep them quiet when you're not in,

get them used to being alone for short amounts of time

and gradually build it up to longer periods.

Give them a toy or a bone to play with.

Don't make a fuss of them before you leave

and leave them where they won't see things

which may make them bark, such as dogs or people.

In order to own a dog in Belfast, you have to have a licence.

This lady doesn't have one, and that's an offence.

She'll have to get one within seven days or face a £25 fine.

Because it's an offence not to have a dog licence,

I have to caution you, OK? You do not have to say anything,

but I must caution you that if you do not mention when questioned

something which you may later rely on in court, it may harm your defence.

-If you do say anything, it may be given in evidence. Do you understand?

-Aye.

-Do you want to reply to it?

-No.

-No? That's all right.

Can I ask you your name, please?

The ladies leave the dog owner with some useful info

on how to keep her dogs quiet and an application for a dog licence.

They'll log the visit and pass on the details to the Noise Squad

in case there are any further complaints.

All we need you to do is get a dog licence, OK?

-Thank you very much for your time.

-Thank you.

Brenda and Kelly didn't witness any problem barking.

They've been unable to get in touch with the complainant

to get more specific details as to when the barking occurs,

so there's not much more they can do here.

If we do ever manage to get in contact

with the person who's made the complaint and they do say that it's when she's walking them,

we'll just have to advise them that in a public place there's no offence.

-They seem well looked after, those wee dogs.

-Yeah.

The next complaint is about a dog

whose neighbours claim is a repeat barking offender.

The ladies go to sound out the owner.

We have had a complaint about a dog from this address

barking at around eight o'clock at night, ten o'clock at night.

I'm not sure whether it's allegedly inside the property or outside the property.

Would your dog bark at that time of night for...

It will bark at people who are walking their dogs past.

It goes to the gate and it barks.

-Does your gate back on to that road, maybe?

-It backs on to the road, yeah.

-So, someone's complained? Oh, that's awful!

-Yeah.

-Basically what happens is...

-Shame they couldn't have come to us.

-Some people just don't like, you know, going directly to...

-OK.

-..and then they come through us and we just have to make you aware.

-OK, fair enough.

If after a certain period of time

the person who's made the complaint isn't happy that the barking has subsided, or whatever,

they have the option of referring it on to the night ti...

-Sorry, the daytime noise team...

-OK.

..and they would possibly make recordings

of what the perceived nuisance noise is.

-The problem is that if it's happening of an evening when we might be out.

-Right.

You know, she's in the back garden.

Possibly, then just keep her in the house or something?

She doesn't like being in the house cos she's used to being outside.

Would you feel you need any advice about it, any training ideas?

We have moved from the country not that long ago

and we had a massive garden and the dog never would bark at other dogs

cos he never saw any other dogs.

So, now, we are aware of it, but it doesn't distress us...

This dog owner seems unaware that her dog might be annoying her neighbours.

Brenda and Kelly have let her know there's a problem

and she's taking things seriously and being extremely cooperative.

-No problem, thanks for being so cooperative.

-Thank you, thanks.

-Bye.

I think she is quite considerate for her neighbours.

I think she was genuinely a wee bit...miffed.

She was coming across as being responsible.

Yeah, I think she is going to try and sort something out.

It's been a busy shift for the ladies, but a productive one.

They received no further complaints about the two properties they visited

and no further action has been necessary.

In York, noise officers Helen Howlett and Ian Gray

are dealing with a complaint about a noisy nightclub.

Having monitored the noise from a neighbour's flat

they've decided to go and have a word with the owner of the club.

Once inside, they let him know there's a nearby resident

who is less than impressed at being kept awake by a booming bass and queuing clubbers.

SPEECH DROWNED OUT BY MUSIC

So, we've been in their house for an hour this evening

and we can hear the bass beat from here inside their property.

Under the terms of their licence,

the nightclub are responsible for keeping noise levels from their music and clubbers under control.

If they don't, they could get a written warning from the Noise Squad

and be investigated by the Licensing Department.

The manager here, though, is keen to sort the problem out

and thinks he knows which floor the problem bass in on.

It's got to be upstairs.

Is it the bass, or is it the vibration of the windows?

It's the bass, it's just this boom-boom...

This chap is co-operating with Ian and Helen

and is keen to sort out the problem tonight

and find a long-term solution.

Initially, what I'll do tonight is tell them to turn it down.

What we have done in the past,

we solved the problem by putting triangular foam.

You know, that absorbs the sound,

put that on the inside and that worked.

It's not just a booming bass that's the problem here, though.

I also wanted to speak to you about your queue

-and are you doing the monitoring for this as well?

-Yes, yes.

Do you have some records we can look at for tonight?

Yes, I've got the records for you on the door.

Once the bass is turned down,

Ian calls the complainant to ask if she's noticed any difference in the level.

It's a step in the right direction anyway, but it's still audible.

OK, that's fine, that'll do for the time being.

We'll speak to you again at a more sociable time.

OK, all right.

Ian and Helen are making progress.

Having got the music turned down,

the manager has returned with the log book

so that Helen can inspect it.

He's new to the job here

and he's doing all he can to sort this problem out tonight.

From my experience, being here for four months,

the main problem is clearing the people and dispersal.

You know, cos at three o'clock in the morning, particularly tonight for example,

there'll be the best part of 300 or 400 people just going straight out to Micklegate

and trying to keep them quiet is a hard job.

Ian explains that he's spoken to the complainant

since the music was turned down

and although there's been an improvement,

more still needs to be done.

It's a big improvement,

but it's still audible at that level it was turned down to.

OK, what I need to do then is to get a pro in,

just to compress it properly for us,

obviously so we don't lose our quality of sound,

but also if we take the bits out so it doesn't upset them.

It's been a productive meeting.

The manager has also offered to speak with the complainant

so they can work together to solve the problem.

Happy that the problem is being taken seriously,

Ian and Helen head off.

It was definitely a productive evening

and hopefully we can sort something out

so these residents don't have to keep putting up with it on a Wednesday evening.

So, meeting over, advice given, problem sorted? Right?

Well, not quite - two weeks later Helen is back.

There have been more complaints about alleged nuisance noise coming from the club

so she's come along with Nigel from the council's licensing team

to find out why local residents are still complaining.

Just coming up to 11 o'clock on Tuesday evening

and Nigel and I are intending to monitor a licensed premises.

We've had two complaints in the last week

about mid-week events at these premises

and I've made arrangements to visit the two complainants.

So we'll be monitoring noise,

if we witness any noise from their premises,

and then decide what action to take once we've witnessed that.

Residents say they can still hear loud music

and that the queues to get into the club are still too noisy.

Hello. Thank you very much.

The student term is over,

but the club have been promoting an event,

complete with fire jugglers on the door.

If the queues are too rowdy tonight,

Nigel will be looking into the club's licensing conditions.

If the noise is too loud, Helen will be serving an abatement notice.

I mean, I've got to the stage where I've run out of patience giving them advice.

They've had fair warning and they know we will be monitoring them.

In order to take action,

Noise Enforcement officers have to witness nuisance noise first hand...

-Well...

-11.20.

Yeah.

..but after listening in the first complainant's home there's nothing to hear

and after waiting for half an hour they head off.

We've just been to the first complainant's property.

It's someone who reported being disturbed last week on student night.

We sat for about half an hour in their kitchen

waiting to hear any noise from the premises,

but it's very quiet, so we haven't heard anything.

So we're going to just pop and see the second complainant

that's expecting us in the next five or ten minutes or so,

but it does look like it's not a very busy night,

not quite what we were anticipating.

If you're suffering from nuisance noise

there are a number of ways to deal with it.

Try talking to your neighbour.

If you want help doing this, your local council can put you in touch with mediation services.

If you don't feel that's going to work,

your local council are also on hand to deal with the problem.

So whatever you do, don't suffer in silence.

The second complainant the team have come to see is a familiar face.

This is where we monitored in last time, isn't it?

So would it be all right to just go in and... Thank you.

Helen visited her a couple of weeks ago

and explains what stage this case has now reached.

The last letter I sent to them said that we would be monitoring them over the next four months.

So, over the summer, if this Tuesday night event does pick up,

then, you know, get back straight back in touch with us

and we can arrange to come out Tuesdays.

In any event, we'll be trying to address that noise from the front

before the student nights start again in October.

Living where we live, we're used to noise,

but it kind of passes, people make a noise and they pass,

but that's, it's just standing there for ages, and...

Lee's clearly fed up, but despite waiting for almost half an hour,

Helen and Nigel don't witness any problems

and they decide to call it a night.

We visited the second complainant

and it was still very quiet from the premises.

That person hadn't been affected earlier on in the evening either,

felt that it was much quieter than normal.

So we stayed there for a while, we monitored,

we saw people coming and going...

and that was about it, really.

So we've spent a bit of time observing the premises.

We thought maybe midnight some of the local places might kick out,

we'd get more people attending, but it's been quite quiet.

Having failed to witness any nuisance noise,

Helen can't take any action tonight.

But after giving the club some advice

and warning them that there's a problem,

she and her colleagues will continue to monitor this situation

to make sure that the local residents

don't feel they're living directly next door to a dance floor.

In Westminster, Steve Pennington of the council's Noise Squad

is on his way to deal with a complaint

about alleged noisy work on a building site,

but getting there is proving to be easier said than done.

I've got some horses up here, some cavalry horses.

They're obviously doing something, some sort of exercise.

The route back...

..via Buckingham Palace,

sometimes you can be stuck there for 20 minutes or so,

just while they close the roads off.

But it's always a nice, pleasant experience,

there's not a lot you do about it.

You're busy trying to get from place to place,

you just know once you get stuck in that traffic

just switch your engine off and enjoy it because you're not going anywhere.

Steve's on his way to see Will,

a local resident who he saw two days ago.

There are two building projects taking place

at the back of Will's flat.

One is to build some new law courts and the other to build new flats.

I've had several complaints over the weekend about problems.

I have visited and...

..unfortunately we've not managed to capture anything as yet,

so I'm going again today and we shall see what happens when we get there.

Noisy building work is allowed between 8am and 6pm on a weekday,

but the builders building the flats have been keen to do what they can

to limit the amount of disturbance for local residents.

They've agreed to quiet hours during the week between 10 and 12

and two and four.

Will says that today, though, that agreement has been breached.

I was going to just come in and have a listen, see what it was like inside, but...

Have they started having earlies, now, have they?

No, that noise is actually not the problem, it's when they're near the party wall

-Oh, on this side here?

-Yeah, on this side here,

it just reverberates straight through,

but after 12 they're allowed to do it.

In order to create space for the flats,

an old building has been taken down

and that's involved heavy and noisy work

on the party wall with Will's flat.

That's the courts, the one with the bars on it, whatever that is.

That's the back of it.

Of course it is. So, this here,

-this is the affordable housing in the middle?

-Yes.

Having spoken to Will, Steve calls the contractors

to find out what they have to say

about the alleged breach of the agreed quiet hours.

GRINDING MACHINERY

For Will it's a frustrating situation

and inside his flat it's clear that being able to work or relax

is very difficult when work is taking place on the site.

GRINDING MACHINERY

This is actually on the building site,

this is not even the party wall.

Compared to the noise and vibration we've had before.

Erm...when...

Before it actually sounds like it's inside the pillars

and inside the cupboards and, you know,

there is someone inside your house working, it's so loud.

This is just normal noise coming from the building site

and, at the moment, this is allowed between the hours of 12 till two

and eight till ten, 12 to two, four till six,

this is what you have to put up with.

Apparently there's nothing you can do about it.

And when they're at the party wall...

it just drives you insane.

It's two or three times louder than that.

GRINDING MACHINERY

This is a difficult situation.

The builders have to carry out their work

in order to build the flats and the law courts,

but with this level of noise in his home,

it's easy to understand why Will is seriously fed up.

And also my wife, who's a musician, she writes music here at home...

and while I could probably make a phone call

or try and write an email,

as a musician you can't write music while that's going on.

Steve's spoken to the contractors building the flats

and he's got their side of the story.

OK, I've just spoken to one of the developers, the site manager,

and discussed the issue with the party wall noise levels.

And, erm, the other side of the story is that they are doing all they can

to ensure that the quiet periods that they volunteered to do are adhered to.

They've got his, the chap, the complainant's got the direct number,

so he can phone if there's a problem, or send a text

and he admitted that he did receive a text this morning

and immediately phoned the site,

and there was somebody working where they shouldn't have been,

and that's been stopped immediately.

So that's their side of the story, they are doing what they can.

Having spoken to the builders responsible for building the flats,

Steve's now going to visit those working on the law courts.

Two days ago, on Saturday afternoon, he was called to the site by Will,

who claimed noisy building work was taking place after one o'clock

and that's against the law.

Steve's decided to have a word with the builders

to get their side of the story.

A short while later, he has an update.

Just been to the site where the courts are being built,

the new court's being built,

and I've had a chat with the site manager

and we've discussed the issue that happened at the weekend,

where the batching plant for the road resurfacing came late.

So, they had to turn it away, rather than carry on beyond one o'clock.

So, again, that's their side of the story,

is that it got to one o'clock, the delivery was late,

they turned it away.

Now, the story I heard from the complainant was that he stopped them.

They carried on working and he had to stand in the road to stop them.

Then they turned the delivery away.

So...yeah,

with not being there, it's difficult to know exactly what happened.

I think today has been, like I said,

today has been about negotiation, talking to both sides,

trying to come to...

..an amicable agreement over how to move forward.

And I think it's been quite successful, so far,

but we shall see what happens.

Mediating cases like this can be a tricky task,

but today Steve's witnessed no serious problems with either site.

He and his colleagues, though, will be keeping an eye on things

to make sure any disturbance to local residents

is kept to a minimum.

It's been a busy shift today.

Officers have dealt with complaints about building sites...

Someone's complained about working on a Sunday,

so I've come round to have a word,

see if there's any reason why you're doing it on a Sunday.

..noisy nightclubs...

Is it the bass or is it the vibration of the windows?

It's the bass, it's just this boom, boom...

..and barking dogs.

There's no let-up in the battle against antisocial nuisance noise

and plenty more cases still to be dealt with by the Noise Squad.

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