Episode 15 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.

A living nightmare, it's like I don't want to be there anymore.

I just want them to have consideration for people.

Persistent parties,

Aggravating alarms, and banging builders

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

and driving us to despair.

It's very annoying, to be honest.

It's too loud, too loud.

But the fight back is on.

Come and speak to us, we've had complaints about the noise.

Across the country dedicated enforcement teams are getting

to grips with nuisance noise 24/7.

I want it turned off all together and taken inside.

We've got a warrant to enter the property,

so we're going to come in if you don't come and answer the door.

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

We would like the music off. Off, now.

And we won't leave until the music is off.

It's time to meet the no nonsense noise squad

Noisy neighbours, late night parties,

illegal building work, and annoying animals.

We've seen and heard them all

whilst we've been on shift with the noise squad.

Turn the music down and then come back and talk to me.

Today we're going to take a look at some of the noisiest, trickiest,

quirkiest and most dangerous cases we've seen officers tackle.

We were with them when they went to quieten a noisy birthday bash.

I've a right to celebrate, it's cost me a lot of money.

We saw them get to grips with a crowing cockerel.

And we were there when a nuisance noise maker turned violent.

Police please. I'm being assaulted.

Parties come in all shapes and sizes

and noise officers have seen them all.

-From big bashes in London's Soho...

-It's disgusting.

It's up there, you see those strobe lights.

..to wedding celebrations in hotels.

The most common though, are house parties.

Every year, noise squads across the UK deal with thousands of complaints

about rowdy parties in people's homes keeping neighbours awake late at night.

This is a written warning to say we've been here.

On a very busy Saturday night,

we joined noise enforcement officers Anthony Dean and Michael,

as they made their way to investigate a complaint about loud music

that was disturbing an entire street.

I could hear loud music on the phone, which is unusual.

We'll go and listen at the complainant's property,

see whether it's a nuisance.

It's after 11 o'clock.

When they arrive, they can hear the noise coming down the street.

You can hear loud music in the street.

We'll have a listen in the complainant's property,

if it's a nuisance, then we'll have to have a word with them,

ask them to turn it down, if they don't we can come back with the police.

That is very loud.

After assessing the noise from inside a complainant's home,

Anthony and Michael decide they're going to take action.

Councils across the UK deal with nuisance noise in slightly different ways.

Here in York, the noise squad can hand out an abatement notice straight away,

but in most cases they first serve a verbal or written warning,

giving perpetrators a chance to stop the noise.

If the noise continues they'll then serve a legal abatement notice.

If that's breached they could be prosecuted,

get a criminal record and a fine of up to £5,000.

At the party, Anthony needs to find out who the responsible homeowner is.

Is the owner of the property here, is it yourself?

Would you mind going and getting them for us,

just from the Council, from the noise control.

Hiya, how're you doing?

How are you, all right?

Are you the occupier of this property?

We've had some complaints about the noise.

-It's loud?

-I know, and it's excessively loud.

It's going to be calming down now.

The homeowner explains she's holding a family party.

It's my son in law's 50th, it's the biggest party I've ever had,

I've never had this music before.

Some of the party guests get involved.

I will get them to turn it down.

But turning the music down isn't good enough for Anthony.

If I can try and do my job which is just to try and get it sorted, OK.

We've had some complaints.

It's a bit noisy?

It's not a bit noisy, it's excessively noisy.

Let me continue.

The noise that we've heard is sufficiently loud to be what

we call a statutory noise nuisance. What I'm going to say now is,

I want you to turn it pretty well actually off.

I want the music to be inside, it's 11:30 at night

and it's unacceptable.

Anthony wants the outside music turned off completely,

but he's not getting much co-operation.

Turn the music off outside.

We're not going to turn it off, but we are going to turn it down.

To be honest, I want it turned off outside.

I ain't bothered what you want.

THE FAMILY BICKER

It's nearly midnight.

Most people are trying to get some sleep.

Anthony serves a written warning to the householder, to stop the noise.

If she doesn't, she'll get an abatement notice

and if she ignores that, she could be prosecuted.

I'm just giving you this, just so that you know that we visited, OK?

There's no sign of the music being turned off.

I want it to turn off, you want to turn it down.

You've said you'll do what you like. Fine, well, you do what you like.

What I'm saying is, if it continues and causes a noise nuisance,

then we might have to come back and serve a notice.

We don't want...

It's all right, what decibel would you like it at?

I want it turned off externally and taken inside.

The homeowner says to Michael this is a one off.

It's the first I've had, a party, and it's going to stop soon because of my age.

One of the partygoers asks who's complained.

Why have you come here, who called you?

I'm not at liberty to tell you.

-Has somebody called you?

-We have had a number of complaints.

-A number?

-Yes.

-What, one or two, or?

-More than two complaints.

Eventually, the music gets turned off.

Thank you very much for turning it off now. Hopefully that'll be the end of it.

But the homeowner's unhappy.

My son in law's having his fiftieth birthday,

I have a right to celebrate it.

It's cost me a lot of money. It's only once, there'll be no more for another year probably.

She does offer to change the music though.

I do have some Barry Manilow, how about that?

Well, let's hope Barry Manilow is played at a much quieter volume

for the sake of the neighbours and her guests.

Written warning served, the officers leave the scene,

but Anthony's not convinced his job is done here.

See? It's still going on. I'll give them ten minutes.

They turned it down and then they turned it off

now it's on and off.

I suspect we'll have further complaints this evening, so we'll be back.

And sure enough, before Anthony and Michael have even had the chance to drive off,

the party music is back on...

and it's as loud as ever.

We've had a number of further complaints,

we're actually still stood in the road just round the corner,

and I can hear The Wonder of You being sung very loudly in the background.

I suspect it's probably going to be another nuisance

and we may well have to serve notice.

So, we'll visit the complainant again,

make an assessment in their property and how it's affecting them.

An abatement notice is more serious than a written warning.

It's a legal document telling perpetrators to stop the noise nuisance.

If they don't, they'll have to pay the consequences in court

and could end up with a criminal record.

Anthony and Michael have called the police for backup to serve the notice.

But once they and the police arrive at the property it's all gone quiet.

Yeah, sorry about that.

They've turned it off now but it's been excessively loud.

We've had about seven or eight complaints from people in the area.

The lads have witnessed nuisance noise,

but rather than serving the notice now,

they've decided it would be better to do it another day.

They have literally just turned it off,

so rather than antagonise the situation and go and serve a notice now, what we will do is

we'll serve a notice early part of next week on the owner.

That means if they have any further parties in the next year or so, that cause a problem,

then we may well be able to take action against them.

A few days later Michael served the owner with a noise abatement notice.

If there are anymore noisy parties from here, she could be getting

a court summons and that wouldn't be a cause for celebration.

We might be a nation of animal lovers

but we also like a bit of peace and quiet.

Whilst we've been on patrol with the noise squad,

we've seen them deal with complaints about nuisance noises

being made by people's pets.

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

It really is stressful and irritating,

and it makes you feel really frustrated.

You just want it to shut up.

In Belfast, the team served an Article 38 notice on one owner

who, despite plenty of warnings,

had failed to do anything about their dog's persistent barking.

This notice says is that if there's further disturbance

the council can take you to court and prosecute you and fine you.

If the pesky pooch continues to be a problem

the owner could be fined up to £5,000.

It's your responsibility to ensure it's not disturbing the neighbours.

In another part of the country, they had a complaint about a mystery noise.

It turned out to be a faulty ultrasonic cat scarer,

but the owner didn't know what all the fuss was about.

HIGH PITCHED SQUEAKING

This is what's making the noise.

-I can't hear that.

-You can't hear that?

-No.

But the most unusual pet that the team had to deal with

was a crowing cockerel.

Noise officer Craig Delorenzo and trainee Siobhan Metcalf

at the York noise squad investigated a complaint from a resident

who was being woken at the crack of dawn by a call of nature.

We're just listening to a complaint

of a cockerel crowing in the early hours of the morning.

The problem has been going on for a while now,

we just had some recording equipment put in to the complainant's property

and we're recording the noise from the cockerel.

In this particular instance, it starts at ten to six in the morning,

and is crowing 14 times in five minutes.

If someone's being woken up before six in the morning,

it's no wonder this cockerel's ruffling a few feathers.

We're all often asked about decibels,

and decibels can be a bad way of describing noise

because it's the annoyance that the noise causes

rather than just how loud it is.

For instance, we've got quite high noise levels of birdsong,

so tweeting sparrows and blackbirds and things,

and those noises don't bother anyone.

But you have an out-of-the-ordinary noise,

such as a cockerel in a city centre location,

and that can disturb people.

The following week, Craig and Siobhan hit the road.

They've written to the owner of the cockerel and now they're going to visit her.

With six years experience on the noise team, Craig knows that however tricky the problem,

turning a deaf ear and hoping for the best isn't really an option.

It's important that we're determined to deal with these problems.

You can't just leave it and let them get away with it,

you have to keep going on and on and on and investigate it thoroughly.

If you're being disturbed by noisy neighbours

or any other type of nuisance noise,

your local noise squad are on hand to deal with it.

So don't suffer in silence, give them a call.

Craig and Siobhan arrive at the owner's home.

With cases like this, noise officers in York

have the power to serve written notices,

telling owners to quieten their animals down.

A written notice means that pet owners are legally obliged to keep their animals quiet.

Breaching this notice is an offence and the owner could be prosecuted in court

and fined up to £5,000.

Craig and Siobhan are led to the back garden

to meet the noisy culprits.

We've had a complaint about the cockerel,

and wanted to come and see you about it

and give you some advice.

The owner's keen to let them know

that although her animals are her pride and joy,

she never intended to be the owner of two noisy cockerels.

I had three hens and one cockerel

and the fox took them on New Year's Eve.

So, basically, when I got these, they were babies

You can't tell their sex until they are adults. So I've ended up with more than one cockerel.

Craig lets her know that there are people who aren't so impressed with early morning wake up calls.

The reason why we've come here today

is we've had a complaint from a resident.

We've had recording equipment in too.

Yeah, I read the letter, I didn't see your first letter,

I received the one when I got home from work today.

I actually spoke to my nearest neighbours before I got the chickens

and, obviously, they've got children and they all come in the garden,

everybody gets the eggs, the kids come and see the chickens, they come and feed them.

And everybody was like, "Oh, it's a lovely noise compared to sirens."

Police cars going off all the time,

ambulances back and forth over there,

I thought, what's a cockerel going to do?

So, obviously somebody's upset.

The majority round here I did...

I wasn't arrogant enough to go ahead and not say anything,

but it's been novelty, me having chickens in the street.

The complaint hasn't come from neighbours who live next door.

The owner wants to come up with a solution

and it turns out one of the birds is considerably louder than the other.

The first stage I thought,

the first step I'll do, is get rid of the noisy one, the black one.

And then see how it goes.

And if the complaints resume, then the blonde one then has to go.

-And I thought that was the compromise that was...

-I'm happy to go with that compromise.

The owner thinks she can find the noisier, black cockerel

a new home in around three weeks.

If there are still complaints after that,

then the other cockerel will be re-homed too.

We may find that once the other one goes,

the other one starts to be more dominant.

He may, but he's a little gentleman.

Until now, the owner wasn't aware that her birds

were getting someone in a bit of flap.

I was quite surprised to get the letter from the Council

because prior to getting the chickens

I actually talked to the neighbours,

especially the neighbours next door, and I asked them if they

would be, you know, have any problem with me getting the chickens.

And everybody was quite, 'Ooh it's great, a unique new thing,'

and it's brought fun to the children.

And also the neighbours get all the eggs,

and they love them, they actually come knocking asking for eggs.

But also through that, we've started trading vegetables with eggs, so it all works out.

I actually thought we were working well together as a community.

And having had these feathered friends for a number of months,

her family have all got quite used to the crowing.

Basically I've actually shut off to them, I can't hear them.

I mean, the children, they sleep through the crowing as well.

I think what it is, it's like anything, train noise,

police noise, any sirens you eventually just get used to it.

But obviously this noise is quite irritating for some individual.

Well, thanks for your help today.

What I'll do is, I'll keep in touch with you

and I'll let you know if we keep getting complaints.

All right? See you then.

After two months of building up a history to this case,

Craig and Siobhan can leave with an excellent result

and no written notice needed to be served.

I'm very satisfied with that resolution.

I think that three weeks is a reasonable time for the complainant,

for the person who's got the chickens to get rid of the cockerel,

and I'm sure the complainant will be happy with that.

I'm going to get in touch with them and ask them to keep me informed.

Anymore problems I'm sure they'll let me know.

It seems like Craig's got a result

and I think it's fair to say he's a happy man.

We don't want to put all our eggs in one basket to resolve the issue,

but hopefully that should be the end of the matter.

Very good, Craig.

Since his visit, this has become a case of cock-a-doodle don't.

The noisy black cockerel has been re-homed.

There have no further problems with the other one and no further action has been needed.

All across Britain we spoke to people about nuisance noise

and I think it's fair to say you've had an earful.

It's the worst thing anyone can go through, definitely.

The flat below us were having a party.

Now, I heard growling noises, everything.

I couldn't sleep until 7.00am. It was actually ridiculous.

Loud music, barking dogs, noisy builders and howling alarms. You're fed up of hearing them all.

It seems a bit more noisier in general,

more time, like 24/7.

I know a friend of mine had a really noisy neighbour,

just a young lad who persistently had parties late at night.

She had three children of her own, and she just couldn't stand it any longer.

So she ended up putting the house up for sale and moving.

Help is at hand though.

Right. I just wanted to give you an update...

We've just got another party we've got to go

and deal with at the moment, then you're next on the list.

Noise enforcement officers have more powers than the police

when it comes to enforcing the law on nuisance noise.

If I say to you I'm going to take it away,

I'm not going to take it away, but I can, right? Whose speaker is it?

So if you've got a problem, don't call the cops.

Pick up the phone and speak to your local council.

They're here to help

Right, we'll be with you in about ten minutes.

OK, bye now.

In Westminster, the Council's noise team

dealt with over 18,000 complaints last year.

And the team never know who or what they'll have to deal with.

I was assaulted just recently.

It was only what we call a common assault,

just pushed over,

but I felt really shocked.

You think OK, right, this has happened, what do I do now?

I've got to call the police,

I've got to get out of this situation,

get away to a place of safety.

Yeah, you just kind of go into training mode, I suppose.

When we joined noise officer Steve Richardson on a busy nightshift

he called in police backup to deal with one noisy neighbour.

Can you open the door, please?

But it was the following night when things really kicked off.

This is, um, loud music,

and we're just making sure I've got the correct address.

It's loud music,

a family have complained about loud music from another flat

and we're going to go in. They've agreed that we can visit,

we're going to go in and take a listen to the music from their flat.

Before Steve confronts the noise maker

he's going to check in with one of their neighbours

to assess how bad the problem is.

Once inside Steve can hear the music.

How long has the music been playing?

Since eight o'clock every weekend,

apparently when the parents are not home.

The teenagers, they do parties and all that.

But the week before, here's what I used to do,

I used to bang the floor just to make them stop.

They stop for about half-an-hour then they start again.

My children when they wake up in the morning,

they always say, "Daddy we couldn't sleep tonight

"because of the music and the noise downstairs."

And the trouble is, sometimes they end up with a fight.

Because they're teenagers they end up with a fight,

they start shouting, they go outside the flat as well.

I spoke to the occupier there before, they were OK,

they turned it down at that time.

That's right.

The nuisance noise is having a big impact on this neighbours life.

You know when I go to work I always feel stressed

and I always feel angry at work.

Is it possible that I could just take a quick listen in the bedroom?

If the children are in there we won't disturb them but if I could...

It's nearly two o'clock in the morning

and Steve can hear the music in the children's bedroom.

It's still clearly audible I'm unhappy about this.

I remember they gave me the occupier's details last time,

I'm absolutely certain I've got the occupier's details,

we'll go and speak to them now.

Hopefully we'll get the music turned off now.

But at the very least, they will get a notice served on them.

In Westminster, if Steve and his colleagues

decide someone is responsible for making nuisance noise,

they can serve them with a formal written notice.

This means that a noise maker is legally obliged to quieten down.

If the notice is ignored they could face prosecution.

Steve heads downstairs.

-It's time to have a word with the person who's making such a racket.

-OK.

I'm happy there's a statutory nuisance there,

so I'm going to go down and try and speak to the occupier.

The last time Steve was here the music was turned off without any problems.

After a few minutes wait, the noise maker comes to the door.

-Good morning. Hello.

-Hello.

-I think we've met before, haven't we?

-Who are you?

I'm from the noise team at Westminster.

Our cameraman explains he's filming Steve.

I want to announce myself to you. How about that?

Hello.

The noise maker might not care about her neighbours,

but it seems she does care about being filmed

behaving in an anti-social manner.

Listen, why don't you switch off?

Because I will switch you off myself.

Steve decides to leave and as he does so,

the noise maker attacks the cameraman.

That's enough, that is enough.

We're leaving now, we're leaving.

-We're leaving now.

-BLEEP BLEEP!

-Get the

-BLEEP

-out of here NOW!

Despite Steve's best efforts to calm the situation,

things soon go from bad to worse as our cameraman tries to leave.

Can we have police, please, someone's being assaulted.

The cameraman was OK and undeterred,

and when the police arrived, she was served with a written notice

which seemed to do the trick. There were no further complaints,

and for this night at least, peace and quiet was restored to the neighbourhood.

Still to come on Noise Squad,

in Belfast, noise enforcement officer David takes on a very big job.

From my point of view it's a worst case scenario in terms of disturbance is what we need to look at.

And there are serious consequences

for a persistent nuisance noise maker.

We've got this warrant today to enter the property,

if need be by force, to take the equipment from them

that they were using at the weekend for the offence.

Last year, noise squads across the UK

received tens of thousands of complaints.

But they weren't all about loud music, barking dogs and noisy builders.

Some cases are a little out of the ordinary,

and it was in Belfast, where we joined David,

for what was probably the biggest and most unique job we saw any officer do.

Belfast has been selected as one of 21 Live Sites

run by local councils and the BBC.

These sites will have a permanent screen to promote the 2012 Olympics,

the BBC and local council initiatives.

This is the big screen over here, they're setting up at the moment,

I'm meeting a representative of the BBC,

who's going to be doing the sound checks with us.

Broadcasts are planned to run from seven in the morning until 11 at night.

David's job today is to agree the acceptable volume.

It would be a bit tricky if the council started getting complaints

about their own sound system!

From my point of view, a worst case scenario in terms of disturbance is what we need to look at.

We'll turn it on and you can see what you think.

Larger music and sporting events will be screened at a much louder level

than news and general information broadcasts,

so David does readings for both.

First, a news broadcast.

NEWSREADER SPEAKS

The ambiance of background noise varies greatly with the location

and is measured in decibels.

A busy street is around 70 decibels.

A quiet room at night is 20 decibels.

And a pneumatic drill is 120 decibels.

As the square is surrounded by offices, David's concern today

is the acceptable level of noise in an office when the screen is in use.

My colleague here is on the phone to

one of the officers in the office just next to the screen.

They're giving the thumbs up that the level it's at at the moment

isn't too loud, they can't really hear it at all, which is good.

We're going to go and put on some music now so we can have

a listen to a different type of noise from the screen.

There will be different types of events, so we want to get a good feel

for what's the worst case scenario in relation to whether it's speech or drama or music.

The screen's at a level that's being operated

on a day in day out normal level.

There will be special events where the screen will be much louder.

Generally, the officer in the City Hall here is saying that

that level's acceptable at the minute,

but any louder would be too loud.

So I think probably in terms of daytime events,

that's going to be as loud as we're able to have it.

However, just to make sure that we know what the impact would be

if we were having evening events or something like that, we'll go in now,

take a quick sound level measurement,

and put the screen on basically at the top level.

Belfast City Hall is the perfect place to carry out the test.

It's the closest big building to the location of the screen

and has lots of offices.

This one belongs to a big cheese, the Town Solicitor

and Assistant Chief Executive!

Let's hope David minds his Ps and Qs.

We've got them to put on the screen at its loudest setting,

so we know what the noise level's likely to sound in special events.

Hello, Kevin? It's David here.

Do you want to put the event level on, and we can do a quick check?

David gets the screen played at full volume.

The exec listens in on the test.

No pressure then, David!

-It's not like that during the day, is it?

-No, no, no.

I wouldn't want to have a serious meeting about some boring subject and be bopping around to Status Quo.

In terms of sound level measurement, it's 52 decibels.

A guideline level for an executive office is sort of around 35 as a good level, so...

So you couldn't really do too much work with that going on all day probably.

So with the level for special events too loud for office hours,

David updates the technician.

We're running it at event level and that...

It was very clear in there.

And at this level, normal level.

At the normal level you can just about hear it, you know.

So it's acceptable?

Acceptable, uh huh.

The normal level is fine, just loud enough for an audience to hear broadcasts

above the sounds of the city

but without disturbing the neighbours.

This is the level they've agreed it can be at during the day

which we've confirmed is acceptable in the offices nearby.

There will be special events in the evenings,

but those will have special agreements and special planning involved.

If we get complaints in the future we'll have to review.

Just as a final thing,

I'm going to take a quick walk along the far side of the square,

to make sure the noise over there, at its current level, isn't an issue.

But I don't think it will be.

Before David can take these final readings he's going to have to do a spot of negotiating.

I think I'll have to ask this guy to stop playing so we can hear the screen.

Which means I'll have to probably pay him.

Hello, can I just ask you just to stop for a wee moment,

-so we can hear the screen, is that OK? Yeah?

-No play?

-Just two minutes, OK?

-Give me two minutes, please, please.

Can I ask you to stop, I just want to hear this big TV screen.

David then checks in the street.

And inside a nearby business.

I'll take a walk into the shop here just to see if I can hear it inside.

I don't think I will be able to, it's very low.

No, you can't hear it at all inside, so that's good,

so it seems to be OK at that level, so I'll just ring the engineers

and tell them they can finish the test now.

David's happy that the levels are set correctly.

There shouldn't be any complaints to the council, about the council.

Job done!

When noise officers go to deal with noise makers

they're often met with very different responses.

Some people are helpful and co-operative.

I'm here about the level of noise coming from your property,

it's nearly quarter to... quarter to four in the morning.

-No problem at all, man.

-All right?

I'm sorry about that.

Some are a little less so.

Can I take your name?

No, I'm not prepared to give you my name.

Right, OK.

And a few, despite the best efforts of the officers,

won't even open their door.

-It's the Council's noise service.

-Who?

-It's the Council.

-Who?

-The Council noise service.

-Who?

Whatever reaction they're met with, officers always get their point across

and make sure the noise maker knows exactly what they have to do.

We would like the music off. Off, now.

And we won't leave until the music is off.

It's a legal requirement, to turn the music down. If we come back tonight it's £100 fine.

If you're going to have loud music in here,

you'll have to have the doors and the windows closed.

Otherwise, what you could find

if you've got music coming out at this level,

you could either have a noise abatement notice served on you,

and we could also look for getting a review of your premises' licence as well.

Every council has someone in their environmental health team

who deals with complaints about nuisance noise.

So if you want to avoid a knock at the door from a noise officer,

here are some simple steps to follow.

If you're having a party, let your neighbours know

and maybe give them an invite.

Keep your windows and doors closed,

and play music at a sensible level.

If you're going on holiday,

leave the keys with someone you trust

and register those details on your council's keyholder database.

And if you've got a dog

make sure it's not constantly barking in the home,

particularly when you're not there.

It sounds easy and it is easy and if you follow these simple steps

you won't be getting calls like this.

-Can you get me someone who lives here?

-I live here.

Go and turn the music down and then come back and talk to me.

Don't say you weren't warned.

We've saved the biggest cause of complaints to nuisance noise teams until last.

And I bet you can all guess what that is.

That's right, noisy neighbours.

That is very loud.

Whether it was during the day...

..or late at night

You look out into the back garden, see flashing lights,

maybe a dozen people dancing,

all having their own disco in the back garden on the lawn.

We were with officers as they cracked down on people disturbing

their neighbours and keeping them awake past their bedtime.

Come to the door.

If you then go upstairs and do the same thing,

you will be committing an offence.

-If you say so.

-I do say so.

In most cases, a quiet word, written warning

or noise abatement notice usually does the trick.

But when people just won't put a sock in it,

officers have the power to confiscate noisy equipment to quieten things down.

If you're in there, we've got a warrant to enter the property,

we'll come in if you don't answer the door.

He was quite lucky cos he managed to convince me I shouldn't take everything.

On a Friday night we joined noise enforcement officer Helen Howlett

and her colleague Fiona as a complaint came in,

which led to serious consequences for a noisy neighbour.

Is the nuisance still happening?

A local resident claims they are being kept awake

by what they think is a karaoke party in a neighbouring flat.

We'll be with you in about ten minutes.

OK. Bye now.

Helen and Fiona head off to investigate.

And it seems this isn't the first time

they've had to deal with this noise maker.

We've found in this case,

we've already served abatement notices on the tenants

at the property that is allegedly causing the noise.

The notices refer to preventing nuisance from loud, amplified music

so depending on what we find,

it may be we're witnessing a breach of the abatement notice.

This is serious stuff. An abatement notice is a legal document.

It's served on people making nuisance noise

that's been witnessed first hand by noise officers.

If it's breached the team can seize the possessions that are making the nuisance noise

and the noise maker also risks being taken to court and fined.

When they arrive at the property Helen and Fiona head inside.

The complainant is a bit camera shy

but after having a chat and monitoring the noise

the team come back with an update.

We heard loud, amplified music.

It was clearly at a level that would prevent sleep,

and it was preventing sleep.

The occupier was woken up by the noise

and couldn't get back to sleep.

The level in the bedroom was sufficient to be a statutory nuisance

and as we've served an abatement notice

preventing further statutory nuisance,

we've actually witnessed a breach of the abatement notice this evening.

The complainant didn't want a fuss

and asked Helen and Fiona not to confront their neighbours tonight.

But having witnessed a breach of the abatement notice

they will be taking action.

We may decide to do a seizure of the noise making equipment

that was used this evening,

to prevent any further breach of the abatement notice, that's an option.

Or we could process the case with a view to prosecution

without doing a seizure. We'll make that decision,

we'll discuss it with our manager back in the office, on Monday,

and take the most appropriate course of action for the case.

Back in the office the team write up their notes.

The decision about what to do next will be made in the coming days.

The following week Helen heads out from the noise squad headquarters with two colleagues.

The team have been dealing with this case for some time now,

and have decided to confiscate the equipment that's making the noise.

It's a decision that hasn't been taken lightly

and is now being carried out.

In this particular case,

the individuals have had a number of warnings,

both verbal and letters.

They will have had a letter explaining the abatement notice

when the abatement notice was served,

and explaining the consequences of breaching the notice.

We've had a near breach, and we have sent reminder letters to them,

reminding them about the abatement notice requirement,

so they've certainly had a good number of warnings from us.

Whenever the team carry out a seizure

they always get police back up to make sure things don't get out of hand

and before they go in Helen gives them a briefing.

We've got this warrant to enter the property, if need be by force,

to take the equipment from them that they were using for the offence,

which we think is karaoke,

probably games machines, CDs, that kind of thing.

Helen's also called in a joiner in case no-one's home

and they have to gain access to the property.

We've spoken to the police,

we've got the joiner on hand so we're now all ready to go.

We believe there's somebody in the flat anyway,

but we're going to go round, knock, explain what we're doing,

why we're doing it, hopefully they'll let us in.

If not, we've got the joiner and we're going to enter under warrant anyway.

With everyone up to speed it's time to move in.

Helen knocks on the door.

The warrant gives the noise squad the power to seize anything

that could have been used in the party to make the nuisance noise.

My name's Helen Howlett,

I 'm from York Council, Environmental Protection Officer.

We're here regarding breach of an abatement notice, so you're...

-You what?

-An abatement notice that's been served on you.

We're here today to seize some equipment

because of an offence committed over the weekend.

Helen cautions the occupant of the flat and the team move in.

So, you have to let us in.

Even though the police are present

seizing people's equipment is always a tense job.

In this instance there are no real problems

and around half-an-hour later the job's done.

It's difficult to say what a typical reaction is.

Some people go very quiet and compliant

and let you get on with it.

Some people want to argue with you against everything,

sometimes there's a happy medium.

It really depends.

Helen and the team head to the noise squad's lock up

to log the equipment and store it.

One, two, three, four, five. Five it should be.

Five bags and a...

-Five bags and a speaker.

-Yeah.

The noise makers will be invited in to the noise squad's HQ

and given a chance to give their side of their story.

Helen's happy that it's been a job well done.

I'm pleased that we have managed to get the equipment from them.

I hope that's given a clear message

that they're not to cause another nuisance, breach of the abatement notice.

Hopefully this weekend, and the evenings in between now and then,

the other residents will have peace and quiet in the evenings rather than have to put up with the noise

that they were having to do so before.

The occupants of the flat have since been interviewed.

The equipment remains in the council's possession

and to date no further complaints have been received

about nuisance noise coming from the property.

We've had a busy time with the noise squad.

We've seen them deal with noisy parties.

I want it turned off externally and taken inside.

Persistent noise makers.

If you're in there, we've got a warrant to enter the property

so we'll come in if you don't answer the door.

And the call of the wild.

COCK CROWS

Well, wildish!

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

and plenty more cases still to be dealt with by the noise squad.

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