Episode 2 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.

It's the worst thing anyone can go through.

It's just something that just goes on and on and on.

Persistent parties...

aggravating alarms...

and banging builders.

They're keeping us awake,

disturbing our peace and quiet and driving us to despair...

It really is stressful and irritating.

It's just a nightmare.

..but the fight-back is on.

You'll need to come down, we're getting complaints about the noise.

Across the country, dedicated enforcement teams

are getting to grips with nuisance noise, 24/7.

We're serving a notice on you, this means if you continue

this noise we'll come back with the police and £100 fine.

What's your proposed action? Seize the alarm clock, maybe?

-I'm seizing anything that makes noise.

-Really?

-Yeah.

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

If you're going to have loud music, you'll have to close the doors.

Otherwise, it could mean as much as losing the licence.

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

Coming up today on Noise Squad,

neighbours are driven to distraction by a mysterious night-time noise.

We've put up with it for ages and ages,

tried to investigate where it's coming from,

all to no avail, really.

A car alarm tests the patience of residents...

-I want to actually put an axe through the bonnet.

-Yeah.

That's exactly how I feel.

..and noise officers have to proceed with caution

on a call-out to a rowdy party.

We need to speak to the noise makers

and try and assess whether...

How aggressive they might be.

York, the county town of Yorkshire,

is home to almost 200,000 people.

And, like other cities across the UK, when the weekend comes round

the number of complaints about nuisance noise often goes up.

Ian Gray has been working for the council's Noise Squad for five years

and has seen it all. From loud parties...

-It's late, so try and wind things down.

-I've turned the music off.

-Parties don't stop till six.

-Appreciate that.

..to barking dogs...

DOG BARKS

..and howling house alarms...

ALARM STOPS

Peace and quiet at last.

It's Saturday night

and Ian's been called to investigate a mysterious noise.

The guy's complained that he's been hearing this noise intermittently,

sometimes it's there for days on end.

Then it would go off. It's been going for the last couple of days,

like a high-pitched buzz, if you like.

Doesn't know where it's from.

We do occasionally find people can be a little sensitive

about noises which we can't deal with,

the sort of low-frequency hum that only they can hear.

If it's fairly low level noise,

it's unlikely to be a nuisance during the day time.

In theory, it's more likely to be a nuisance at night

if it's loud enough to be capable of disturbing sleep.

As Ian arrives, Alan, who called to complain,

shows him to his back garden

and the problem sound can clearly be heard.

But what is it?

SHRILL BEEPING

It's a very, sort of, high-pitched, intermittent noise.

Can't really tell what it is, or where it's from at the moment.

If we can get over that way, somewhere,

we might have a better idea of working out where it's from.

Normally the cause of nuisance noise is obvious,

but this is an odd one.

Potentially, it could be one of those...

Used as a cat deterrent.

I've heard of people using, sort of, high-frequency noise before,

they're put in the gardens to try and deter cats.

We've put up with it for ages and ages,

we've tried to investigate where it's coming from,

all to no avail, really. But then, suddenly it would just disappear

and everything's quiet for...

It can be four or five days, sometimes a week or more.

Then suddenly it appears again.

Some of my older colleagues and friends that come round,

they say they can't hear it

which means it's probably too high a frequency.

But it's got to the point, now, where it really does grate on you.

It's still not immediately obvious what the property is

where the noise is coming from, so I'm going to have a drive round,

see if I can identify which piece of land it is,

and, therefore, what's actually making the noise.

Ian's got a busy night ahead of him

and isn't going to pussyfoot around with this complaint.

It doesn't take him long

to track down which property the sound is coming from.

Each council approaches nuisance noise slightly differently.

Here in York, if Ian or his colleagues witness a problem,

they can issue a verbal warning.

If needs be they can then hand out written notices

and if the noise maker still won't pipe down,

they could be prosecuted in the magistrates court

and fined.

As luck would have it, the homeowner arrives home.

Hopefully he can shed some light on this mystery.

-Evening. Ian Gray from York Council Noise Patrol.

-Yeah?

I'm just looking around to investigate

a noise complaint, at the moment.

It's like a high-pitched noise which you can hear.

Oh, there is something.

I'm trying to identify whose garden it's in.

I can hear it, around here somewhere.

Can we just have a bit of a walk down there?

It might give me a bit more of an indication

as to where it might be from.

A quick scout around the garden

reveals the source of the mystery noise.

SHRILL BEEPING

Ah!

BEEPING CONTINUES

Is it...?

I'll just let you know, I've identified what the noise is.

-Do you want to explain what this is to me?

-That's a cat scarer.

Well, I thought it might be.

This is what's making the noise.

SHRILL BEEPING

-I can't hear that.

-You can't hear that, now?

The homeowner is oblivious to the noise

that his ultrasonic cat-repeller is making.

As we get older, we hear less and less higher frequencies

so it is possible to be unaware of a noise that others can hear clearly.

Too clearly, in this case!

I'm stood here now and I... It's very noisy.

-Is it?

-It is.

So I'm going to have to say, obviously,

you're going to have to stop using this

because the high-frequency level is such that,

having listened in the complainant's garden, it would be enough to be

what I would call a statutory nuisance in the afternoon.

So, I'm switching it off.

BEEPING STOPS

Peace and quiet again.

So I don't know whether it's faulty,

whether it's supposed to be quiet like that.

-Yeah, I've had it about three years.

-Right.

-Cos it's...

-You can't hear it now?

-No, it's now switched off.

Nothing at all.

What I'll have to do anyway, following this,

I'll just send you a letter to confirm that we've had a complaint

and what we've found here, and you might be able to let me know

whether you've found an alternative cat deterrent, or something.

Cos obviously, it would deter me from the garden as well, that would!

I would suggest keeping it switched off at the moment.

You'll have to try and chase them off some other way.

It's been there at least three years, you know...

No complaints.

I'll have to leave it switched off and take a chance on the cats.

Satisfying result, finding out where the noise was coming from

and being able to sort it out as quickly as that.

So, time to go and deal with some noisy parties, now.

Problem solved. Ian's a happy man and this case is closed.

Ian might have got a result here

but he's got a busy Saturday night ahead of him.

OK, can I get some more details? Where's the noise coming from?

A resident is hoping he can put an end to a party

which she says is keeping her awake.

Out the back shouting, and laughing.

It's really annoying when you're trying to get to sleep.

All over the country, quiet streets like this...

and this...

are being disturbed by sounds like this...

ALARM BEEPS

-ALARM HONKS

-..and this.

ALARM WAILS

Faulty alarms that just won't stop

and drive people up the beeping wall are an illegal nuisance.

And when it comes to dealing with nuisance noise,

Anuja Jayawickrema isn't a woman to be messed with.

We would like the music off.

If we catch you working, drilling and things,

we will prosecute you.

Anuja's worked for Westminster Council's Noise Squad

for nearly seven years and at 8.30 on a Saturday morning

she's heading out to track down a car alarm

that's ruining the start of someone's weekend.

I'm going to have a look for a car,

because the complainant's not sure where the car is.

She's not even sure if it's in her road.

So, hopefully it'll still be sounding when I get there...

..and have a look.

Last year, the Westminster Noise Squad received

over 200 complaints about beeping car alarms

and Anuja knows that they can drive people around the bend.

Some people get so angry when the alarms just don't stop,

they'll go out there write notes, leave notes,

saying, "Stop your bleep car alarm."

That's what noise does, it drives you mad sometimes.

As Anuja arrives in the area

where the car with the problem alarm is alleged to be,

it doesn't take her long to hear that it's still going.

Ah-ha, I can hear it. ALARM BLARES

Finding it, though, is a slightly trickier task.

It's stopped! Dear, oh, dear, oh, dear.

Where is the alarm?

ALARM BLARES Oh, there it is. Is that it?

Right, the noise is getting...

Going away from the noise. And I'm going to annoy this taxi now.

I wonder if it's that van. It can't be that van, can it?

You see where the flashing lights...? No, it's in there.

Having found the car, Anuja goes to investigate further

and is met by a group of seriously hacked-off local residents.

Hello.

Oh, you've already got... I'm from Westminster Council.

They show Anuja the written notice that was served on the car

by one of her colleagues last night, legally obliging the owners

to shut off the alarm. But with no owner in sight,

it had to be left on the windscreen.

There must be a way of getting rid of this car.

The neighbours think the offending car belongs to a diplomat

and that's a bit of a problem.

Oh, they're diplomats' cars, you see. We're not allowed to break into them.

No, no. So, um...

ALARM DROWNS OUT SPEECH

Yeah.

This is a real car-alarmity.

The residents tell Anuja that this hellish honk

has been going on and off for days.

In Westminster, any car alarm that's faulty

and sounds for more than five minutes in any fifteen minute period

is considered to be a nuisance.

Once a warning notice is served, the owner has one hour to turn it off.

If they don't, the noise officer can break into the car

to turn it off and the owner will have to foot the bill.

Unfortunately, though, as this vehicle seems to belong

to a foreign diplomat who is immune to UK laws,

Anuja's hands could be tied

when it comes to getting this noise turned off quickly.

Understandably, the residents have reached the end of their tether.

The previous night, it was there, on, when we went to bed

and then eventually I did get to sleep.

But then this morning it's woken me up at half past five,

between five and half past five,

and I knew it was somewhere round here,

and it has kept me awake ever since then.

I mean, it's just non-stop terrible...experience.

-I want to put an axe through the bonnet.

-Yeah.

That's exactly how I feel.

Madam, I don't blame you.

The Council cannot break into a diplomat's car.

No, but you can tow it away.

That would be a last resort. We're not allowed to touch them.

You don't have to touch it, just shackle it up,

haul it on to a lorry and park it on...

Well, I would have to get authorisation

-from somebody higher above.

-Paperwork. Just do it.

I'll have to phone the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

If you don't, somebody's going to do something to it.

The residents are understandably upset

but Anuja has to make sure she sticks to the rules.

She wants to sort this nightmare noise, though, and has had an idea.

I've just thought of something.

To check whether the doors are shut properly.

Because sometimes a simple thing like that can stop the alarm.

No signs that the windows have been opened.

As Anuja begins to test the doors, good news arrives.

A staff member from the embassy has been informed of the problem

and has come to disconnect the car battery.

-Is this your car?

-Yeah.

-Ah!

Lovely. I'm from Westminster Council. The neighbours are up in arms.

I know, that's why you see I'm here to switch the battery off.

But experience has taught Anuja that this may not be the solution.

Some cars have a separate alarm to the battery.

Having stopped the racket with the key, the embassy staff member

also disconnects the car battery.

We can't disconnect alarms on diplomat cars.

Anuja gives him the written notice that was served last night,

takes his details and tells him to stick around

to make sure that the awful noise is off for good.

What I would like you to do is to stay a while,

because it could come on even after 10, 20 minutes.

If it comes back on, we have a locksmith

who could certainly try and help you, talk you through what to do.

With calm and quiet at last restored to this neighbourhood,

Anuja phones the lady who called in to complain

to give her the good news.

It's a car that belongs to the Diplomatic Service,

and one of the workers has just turned up to disconnect the alarm.

So he's going to wait a while to see if it does start again,

but hopefully that will stop the noise.

Obviously, if it does start again, give us a call back straight away.

It's a good morning's work for Anuja.

The car alarm stayed off and there was no need for further action.

This case is closed.

This complaint may have been resolved without too much fuss,

but when she goes to confiscate

a persistent nuisance noise offender's possessions,

Anuja has to get tough.

The onus falls on you,

because you have been notified by us many a time that there is a problem.

In York, noise officer Ian Gray is on a busy Saturday night shift.

He's on his way to deal with an alleged noisy party.

Last year the City of York Council's Noise Squad

received around 2,500 complaints

and over half of those were complaints about noisy neighbours.

Probably about 15 to 20 people there, loud music,

lots of shouting, all that kind of thing going on.

The complainant says the same thing happened last week

and it went on until about 1.30 in the morning.

So we'll go out there and see what kind of reception we get,

see how much noise there is. Music can be a nuisance any time of day.

It's more likely to be classed as a nuisance later on at night,

which affects sleep, and we are getting on now

towards 11 o'clock at night, so there's a bit of scope for us

to say to them, "Look, start winding things down,

"another quarter of an hour,"

and we can see what we think of the levels when we get there.

In order to be able to take action against noise makers,

officers have to witness a problem first hand.

If they think the situation deserves it, Ian and his colleagues

can hand out a written abatement notice

which means the noise maker has to quieten down

or face potential prosecution and a fine.

When Ian arrives, the first job is to check the noise

from the complainant's home.

How's the volume at the moment, compared to when you called?

It's up and down slightly, to be honest.

It'll go quiet and then start really noisy again

and then they put the music back on

and it's turned down a bit, then they put it back up again.

One of the other things is that they hammer on the door,

slam the door every time. I don't mind once or twice,

but when it's constant it's really annoying.

Clearly they're upset with the noise.

So how loud has the music been when you called earlier on?

I wouldn't say the music was loud, it was more the noise of the people.

The amount of people there, to be honest, there's a lot of noise.

-There's a number of them, there.

-There has been, yeah.

And it's just every Saturday. It's getting worse.

Obviously, you don't want anybody not to enjoy themselves,

but when it's midnight, one o'clock, after that,

and they're out the back shouting and shrieking and laughing,

it's really annoying when you're trying to get to sleep.

What would you normally be doing?

-Listening to the television?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Could you turn it on to the volume you'd normally listen to it?

I think it's probably fairly easy to watch telly at the moment

without it really interfering too much.

Fairly soon it's going to be time

when you would probably expect to be going to sleep.

If that noise is affecting you

where you're going to be sleeping, then I'd assess in a different way.

If it's OK, I'll just have a quick listen upstairs, so I can see what...

Ian goes upstairs to monitor the level of noise

from one of the bedrooms.

Certainly a lot more noticeable up here,

possibly at these kind of levels...

might be enough to disturb.

Just have a quick look, see if I can see anything.

The level of the music isn't too loud.

It's the people in the garden that are keeping this family awake.

So the noise upstairs is a lot more noticeable than downstairs,

quite a few people seem to be sat outside drinking, talking.

The time now, 11 o'clock,

the kind of time where you expect people to be getting to sleep.

I'm just going to pop round, have a word with them,

tell them there's been a complaint, and ask them...

Obviously if you're going to be going upstairs,

the chances are, if they bring the party inside...

There's no music, so if they bring it inside, just occasionally...

if they're going out smoking, fine.

Hopefully we should be able to reduce the noise

by bringing the party in, and no music and things.

That should be enough. So we'll give that a try and see what they say.

Thanks.

Ian goes to visit the party and lay down the law.

DOOR BELL RINGS

After a while, someone comes to the door.

< SHOUTING

-Hi. Ian Gray, York Council Noise Patrol.

-OK.

I just wanted a quick chat with the tenants living here.

Yep, bear with me, two seconds.

The person holding the party comes to see Ian

and he explains what action he'll be taking.

OK, what we're going to do is just send you a letter

confirming we've been round today, and we've had a complaint.

That basically outlines what the law is

and just confirms what we've said today.

So, nothing's likely to happen if you keep things quiet.

If we got further complaints, came out and found

that the noise is enough to be a statutory nuisance

you could have a noise abatement notice served on you.

But if you keep it quiet and bring people in, then that'd be great.

Is it from outside or is it from inside?

It's fairly noisy in the bedroom from the people that's outside,

so once you bring them in I'm sure that should be sufficient.

I'll make sure the windows and the back door's shut

when people aren't outside.

At least that way the party can continue,

but the last thing you want is for us to get called out again.

Another job done and Ian's a happy man.

Yeah, seemed to go fairly well, she was fairly...

sober and fairly responsive and seemed fairly co-operative to things,

so I'm sure if I leave it with her, it'll all get sorted out.

Ian's visit did the trick.

The Noise Squad received no more complaints about this party

and no further action was needed.

As Ian's busy Saturday night shift continues in York,

a pub risks serious consequences

if it doesn't pipe down.

If you're having loud music you'll need the doors closed.

Otherwise, it could mean as much as losing the licence.

In Westminster, one repetitive noise maker loses his noisy toys

after ignoring too many warnings.

I didn't take everything. I was tempted.

And in Belfast noise officers try and silence two late night parties

disturbing the neighbours.

If you continue this sort of noise,

we'll be coming back with the police and a £100 fine.

One of the biggest causes of anti-social nuisance noise

in the UK is rowdy parties.

And if you live next door to someone who's having one,

it can be a nightmare.

The most annoying noise ever suffered is late night parties

in the summer months, next door neighbours...

Within the first month of them being in,

we had the police up at them at least five times

and they were ready to get an ASBO taken out against them,

they were that bad.

Loud music, banging doors

and rowdy revellers mean that sleep is almost impossible.

The flat below us were having a party.

Now, I heard growling noises, everything.

I couldn't sleep till 7am, it was actually ridiculous.

In Belfast, the council's Noise Squad

deal with thousands of complaints every year

about noisy parties

and tonight looks like it's going to be no exception

for officers Joe and Steve.

We've got seven calls built up there, it's all come in together

in the space of half an hour, 45 minutes.

So, depending on how quickly we get through them,

we may well be ringing some of the complainants back

to advise them that we can't make it out tonight

due to the time constraints.

Joe and Steve are on their way to a house party

that's allegedly sharing its music with an entire street.

At the minute, we're heading up to a party

in a part of South Belfast, here now.

It's a big road in South Belfast,

and the complainants say they're being disturbed by music.

They don't want any further contact from us, so I'm assuming

they're probably in bed and they're being disturbed by the music.

So, again, we'll call out and assess this from outside

the complainant's property and decide whether or not it's actionable,

whether it's a verbal warning or a warning notice, or nothing at all,

depending on the level of noise.

Different councils approach nuisance noise in slightly different ways.

Here in Belfast, if the lads decide the party

is so loud that a warning notice has to be served,

the homeowner will have ten minutes to quieten things down.

If they don't and Joe and Steve are called back to the property tonight,

the homeowner could be hit with a £100 fine.

As they get near to the house they spot possible evidence

of the party heading straight for them.

There's a guy walking down the middle of the road.

He's probably come from the party.

This lonesome cowboy seems to have packed up and is homeward bound.

Perhaps the sun has already set on this hoedown.

Here we go, here. Here they are standing outside, look.

As Joe and Steve arrive, though, it seems his posse is still partying.

MUSIC AND TALKING

Before Joe and Steve get out, they assess the situation from the car.

19:54, yeah?

23rd, 23rd...

Despite the noise,

it looks as though these party animals are pretty tame.

All right? How are you doing?

Hi, we're from Belfast City Council.

We need to speak to somebody that lives here.

Anybody live here at all?

They're decent lads and once Steve explains the situation

they're happy to comply and turn the music down.

Steve, though, has decided to give them a written notice.

If the volume goes back up tonight,

the occupiers could be getting a £100 fine.

So, we're serving this warning notice on you, all right?

It runs out at seven o'clock tomorrow morning

but it basically means that if you continue this sort of noise

-we'll be coming back with the police and a £100 fine.

-Yeah, sure.

-So, if you bring people inside and bring your music inside...

-Yeah.

..nobody else can complain and then we won't have to come back.

-Yeah, that would be fine.

-That's great. Thanks very much.

Steve's warning is clear

and the lads promise to move the party inside.

They've been very co-operative,

they've turned the music off right away

and they're bringing people inside.

Hopefully they'll close the door

and the complainants won't be disturbed again.

The warning notice did the trick.

There was no further problem from this party

and no further action was necessary.

If you're being disturbed by noisy neighbours

or any other type of nuisance noise, don't suffer in silence.

Your local council are on hand to deal with it, so give them a call.

The majority of the Noise Squad's complaints in Belfast

are about domestic noise.

Parties can be an irritation for those without an invite

and they're certainly keeping Joe and Steve busy tonight.

Hi, I'm from the council's noise service. We're getting complaints from your neighbours.

And when late night revellers take to the streets of Belfast,

it's not just the noise that's a nuisance.

Basically there's nothing we can do,

cos it's a public order offence to stand and drink in the street.

In another part of the city there have been multiple complaints

about loud music and aggressive voices.

The lads are on their way to check it out.

Once we identify the property that's making the noise, we'll assess it from outside.

Due to the fact that all three callers requested no further contact from ourselves

because they're a bit fearful of the residents of the property that's making the noise,

once we get outside we'll assess how loud it is,

and if it warrants a verbal warning or a warning notice,

and judging the crowd, what we can work out

just by listening to all the voices, the songs they're listening to,

and if we think there's a chance it could go wrong

we'll ring the police and ask them to come and assist us

while we serve the warning notice or giving them the verbal warning.

Joe and Steve are hesitant with this case.

In the past, other members of the council's Noise Squad

have been assaulted.

I don't know why she can hear any male, aggressive voices.

Sounds like it's the top floor.

Do you think we need the police?

We'll go up and listen to the door

-and see how we feel from that.

-All right.

If noise officers are concerned about their safety

they can call in police back-up.

This time they've decided to go it alone.

It's a very tense time for the lads.

They have no idea what could greet them when they reach the flat.

They proceed with caution.

It's times like these that the Noise Squad

have to rely on their intuition and know-how.

The first job is to assess the level of noise from outside the property.

MUSIC BLARES

-That's all males, isn't it?

-That's why they could hear male voices

We're listening to the voices of the noise makers.

To try and assess whether...

How aggressive they might be when we approach them.

We seem to think they might be reasonable enough.

They've decided to speak to the noisy residents.

No-one responds. But then...

MUFFLED SHOUTING

They hear loud male voices on the other side of the door.

-We going to pull back, Joe, with this?

-Mmm. Come on.

Instinct and experience tell them to back off

but Joe still takes action.

He leaves them with a written warning notice to stop the noise.

If they don't shut up they'll get more than a warning next time.

If the complainant phones us back, we will take a measurement

and if it proves that he's breached that warning notice,

we'll come back out and phone the police

and we will go and issue them with a £100 fine.

He knew I was standing there and he wouldn't open the door,

so if we bring the police they'll have more authority

and hopefully he'll open the door for them.

If not, then the fixed penalty notice will be posted through

the letter box as well, and he'll have two weeks to pay that.

If we go to their door with a £100 fine their attitude

might turn nasty, so if we do come back we'll probably bring the police.

Let's go. Supper time.

Luckily for this noise maker's neighbours,

the warning did the trick.

Joe and Steve didn't receive any more complaints

and no further action was necessary.

In Westminster, noise enforcement officer Anuja is on her way

to a flat to deal with a persistent nuisance noise offender

who refuses to keep it down.

This is a serious business.

Anuja's armed with a warrant that gives her the power

to confiscate anything that has been making nuisance noise.

So we're going to do the seizure,

we got the warrant a couple of days ago,

because the chap had been served a notice for noise nuisance.

He leaves his radio on,

he leaves his alarm clock on and goes out to work.

So now we're going to seize his equipment.

Every year, Westminster Council's noise enforcement officers

confiscate thousands of pounds worth of property

from persistent, nuisance noise makers.

It's a last resort for people that refuse to turn down the dial

and behave themselves.

The noise maker Anuja's on her way to see has had plenty of warnings.

I've been to see him and he seems very apologetic

and says he won't do it and then, lo and behold,

he does it again and again.

And the complainant really struggles.

So, this is the last step, really, we've got to seize his equipment

because he just will not listen to reason.

Anuja's a formidable force in the battle against nuisance noise makers

but it seems she could also give the paparazzi a run for their money.

That's the Dorchester, where J'Lo likes to stay when she's in town.

I saw Guy Ritchie at the lights the other day,

he was there in his Range Rover.

I only realised after he'd pulled away.

I thought, "I know that face," and it was Guy Ritchie.

Anuja's smiling but this is important business

and after arriving, she goes through the paperwork.

And then this is the warrant that gives us rights

to enter the premises and seize any equipment that he's got

that can make music or noise, basically.

Only because he's quite difficult to stop.

The warrant gives Anuja the power

to break into the noisemaker's home if he's not in.

The locksmith's arrived and he's ready for action

and just in case this noisy neighbour is in,

she's called the police for back-up

to make sure the situation stays under control.

He does that a lot, he leaves his alarm clock and goes out,

and then he plays his loud music as well.

What's your proposed action? Seize the alarm clock, maybe?

-I'm going to seize anything that makes noise.

-Really?

-Yeah.

Briefing over, it's time to knock on the door

and find out whether or not she'll have to break in.

The noise maker's at home.

Anuja serves him with the warrant.

He's not happy, but given the persistent nature of his noise-making,

she's in no mood for compromise.

The onus falls on you because you have been notified by us many a time that there is a problem.

So you can't play music on this now.

The warrant gives Anuja the power to take away equipment

making the nuisance noise

and as loud music has been a problem in the past,

she decides to take away his speakers and instruments.

You wouldn't have been served a notice for music, if you didn't play it at a level that was a nuisance.

The noisemaker claims that there's poor insulation between his flat

and the complainant's, but Anuja explains that's no excuse.

If you know there's poor sound insulation in your premises

between your neighbour, you have to live accordingly to what you have.

I was quite nice to him, I thought.

-You were very fair.

-I didn't take everything.

I was tempted.

It's been a difficult job, but Anuja thinks she's struck the right chord.

He was lucky, he managed to convince me

that I shouldn't take everything.

He will be asked to come to court

and we'll want to claim back all these costs from the locksmith,

and the court costs, so he's probably looking at nearly £1,000

for all those sort of things, and the officer's time. It could be more,

because we've served so many notices and we've done the warrant now

and the seizure and the locksmith will have charged as well

for his assistance, even though we didn't need him.

We don't know what it's going to be like, so he'll get charged for that cost.

Further to the confiscation,

the noise maker moved to a new flat outside the Westminster area.

His equipment is still retained by the council and the neighbour

being disturbed by the noise has also moved into a new flat.

In York, Ian Gray of the City Council's Noise Squad

is working a busy Saturday night shift.

He's on his way to a complaint about noise coming from a pub

that's disturbing people living close by.

Just received a complaint about loud music,

according to the complainant, banging out of a pub,

so we're just going to drive over that way

and have a quick look. The pubs need to make sure that they're operating

in a manner that doesn't disturb any of the other locals,

and doesn't cause a statutory nuisance,

so provided they comply with various conditions

such as keeping doors and windows closed then they should be able

to function in a manner which doesn't affect any of the local residents.

If Ian witnesses any nuisance noise

the consequences for the pub could be serious.

There are over 200 pubs in York and they all get their licence

to sell alcohol and run their business from the local council.

Any continual noise-making that's against the law

can lead, in extreme cases,

to the landlord losing their licence.

A quick drive-by confirms there's a problem.

MUSIC BLARES

Doors left open, I think it's going to be a call to at least make them

close the doors, if nothing else.

It would be a fairly straightforward thing for the pub

to make sure that they're operating in a manner

not to affect anybody else, but they've just got the doors wide open.

If we're going to ever take any action against premises

for statutory nuisance,

we need to be able to have an address at which we'll be able to monitor it.

On this particular occasion, though,

we've seen some clear things that we can try and ask them to do anyway.

If we can't get access to the complainants,

not a great problem, we'll just go and see the pub,

get them to make sure they keep the doors closed

and give them a strong warning.

This level of noise isn't on.

Ian goes in to speak to the manager.

My name's Ian Gray of York Council Noise Patrol.

We've had a complaint about loud music coming from the pub today.

Right...

Driving by, I noticed that all the doors are just left wide open.

Yes.

Is there any reason for the doors being open?

Cos of the heat, it's so warm in here.

Struggling to make himself heard over the music,

Ian explains to the manager that the situation is serious.

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

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

Otherwise, what you could find,

if you have music coming out at this kind of 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.

Which could mean as much as losing your licence,

having additional conditions put on it, that kind of thing.

The music's going to be turned down at ten to twelve.

-So in...four minutes.

-And the doors, you're...

So, it will be turned down and last orders will be called, anyway.

OK.

He's managed to get the music turned down,

but Ian isn't too impressed that the reason the doors were left open,

allowing the music to blare into the night,

was because it was too warm in the pub.

Common sense says if you're playing music that loud,

you should not be having doors and windows open.

It's down to them to ensure they put some decent air conditioning in if it's too warm in there.

We're going to have a look at the licence back in the office

and see whether they're breaching any conditions.

If they are, that information

will be passed on to the licensing section.

Ian wants to check that there are no extra conditions

in the pub's licence relating to previous nuisance noise,

so he heads back to the office to look up the records.

It seems there was a condition on the premises licence which says

that music should be inaudible to the nearest noise-sensitive properties.

Quite clearly, from when we've just been out there,

there's been a whole number of properties

that could have been listening to that music.

So that's a breach of a licence condition,

it's not something that we specifically enforce

but we will be passing that information

on to the licensing section at the start of next week.

Just as Ian confirms that the pub shouldn't be making nuisance noise,

there's another complaint from a nearby resident

claiming that music is blaring out of the pub again.

We'll come and listen and hopefully that should give us enough evidence

to take it a bit further, so we'll see you shortly.

That was somebody else complaining, saying they're being disturbed

by loud music as we speak, so it would appear that some of the advice

that we gave while we were there has been ignored.

We've got an address now where we can go round and have a listen

and see whether it's a statutory nuisance.

We've given them an informal warning. To my mind if we go round there, to this guy's house,

and it's a statutory nuisance I'll be quite happy to serve a noise abatement notice on them.

Ian can serve a statutory noise abatement order on the landlord

of the pub if he witnesses nuisance noise when he returns.

An abatement notice is a formal written warning

which means that the pub has a legal obligation to quieten down.

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

which could lead to fines and even the pub losing its licence.

Ian heads straight to the pub to see what's going on.

It's all quiet so Ian calls one of the residents

who'd called in to complain.

Just drove past the pub and I was coming to see you

but I didn't hear anything happening.

Does the music seem to have stopped?

Yeah, he said that just in the last couple of minutes

it does seem to have gone fairly well down. He can still just hear it,

but the levels are right down.

So that's good, they at least took the advice and that,

but there were still breaches of licence conditions

which we will be passing that information on

to the licensing section.

They can obviously take what action they want to do over that

and we'll be sending out some strong warning letters

to the management of the pub, and obviously let them know

if we do witness a nuisance, they'll be getting a notice served on them.

After warning letters were sent to the landlord and the pub owners,

the case is still the subject of a joint investigation

by the noise team and the licensing department of York Council.

It's been a busy shift for the Noise Squad.

They've dealt with everything from a faulty car alarm and cat scarer...

This is what's making the noise.

..to noisy parties...

Yeah, well, you'll need to turn it off.

..and the seizure of one persistent noise offender's noisy toys.

I didn't take everything. I was tempted.

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

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

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