Episode 7 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.

SIREN BLEEPS

It's the worst thing anyone can go through. Definitely.

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 need to come down, we've had complaints about the noise.

Across the country, dedicated enforcement teams

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

The lady out the back, it's worse than ever.

Peace and quiet at last.

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

LOUD MUSIC

Come to the door.

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

Coming up today on Noise Squad - concerned for their personal safety,

Noise Officers call in the police to help deal with some rowdy revellers.

We've driven past it and had a look at the number of people inside

and how they're behaving, so for the sake of our own safety,

we're looking at maybe approaching them with a police escort.

A barking dog is driving local residents barking mad.

DOG BARKS

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

And there's frustration on the menu for the neighbours of a restaurant

whose faulty extractor fan is ruining their lives.

You can avert your eyes from things

but you can't shut your ears off.

You know, you can't go around with ear plugs.

It's Friday evening in Westminster, in the heart of London.

Thousands of people are heading out to enjoy the start of the weekend.

Weekends can be the busiest time of the week for the Noise Squad

and with six years' experience on the team,

Steve Pennington's seen it all.

He knows all the potential problems

and the capital's streets like the back of his hand.

Oh, I know where that is. Oh, hello!

Steve is part of the biggest

and busiest Noise Enforcement team in the country.

Last year, he and his colleagues dealt with over 18,000 complaints.

He knows that dealing with anti-social nuisance noise

is an extremely important job.

There's a lot of people that need this service.

I mean, they really do need it.

If they didn't have this service they could be...

It's not an emergency service,

but as far as the social aspect goes,

we're not dealing with a small proportion of the population

that are vulnerable.

It's... Everybody's vulnerable as far as we're concerned.

It's the start of Steve's shift

and he's on his way to deal with a complaint that's been called in.

I'm going up to...not far from Queensway, to a burger bar,

with a loud air conditioning unit, allegedly.

Now, a noisy air conditioning unit might not sound like

the most serious problem in the world,

but imagine living next door to something like this.

LOUD WHIRRING

Not surprisingly for those that have to live near them,

faulty extractor fans and air conditioning units

are a recipe for misery

and with thousands of restaurants all over Westminster,

they're a bigger problem than you might think for Steve and his colleagues.

We get our fair share, yeah. Not every day,

but a couple of times a week.

More so in the summer.

In order to take action, enforcement officers have to witness

nuisance noise first hand and this cheesed-off resident is keen

to point out the horrendous hum at the bottom of her garden.

That's the noise, you see.

WHIRRING

That tree's in full leaf, that lime tree, you can't actually see,

from where I'm standing, the actual extractor fan.

They've enclosed it in a sort of brick casing,

but it doesn't make any difference to the noise.

This homeowner is in a real pickle.

The burger bar that she claims is responsible for the noisy extractor fan

backs onto her garden and she's had enough.

How're you supposed to enjoy...? Is this Saturday and Sunday afternoons as well?

-It's all the time.

-All the time.

You see, you can see that brick thing.

-Oh, it's inside this brick thing here.

-Yeah.

-Is it all right to walk along here?

-Yes, all right.

WHIRRING

Oh, I see, this silver thing here.

There's no doubt this fan is noisy,

but Steve wants to know if it's smelly, too.

Do you get odour from it as well? Sometimes?

Funnily enough, not as much as you might think.

Occasionally you think, "Oh, God."

At a time of life when their homes should be a haven of calm and tranquillity,

all of the neighbours are having their peace and quiet disturbed.

My neighbour here's in her late eighties.

The ones the other side are getting on for 70s and 80s, you see,

-and you know, we're at home a lot.

-Yes, absolutely.

So, as soon as you come out,

even if you open the window like that, we hear this blooming thing.

And the bedrooms as well?

That bedroom up there, you know, in the warmer weather,

you open the windows and this noise just comes in.

You know, you can avert your eyes from things,

but you can't shut your ears off. You know,

you can't go around with ear plugs all day.

I don't want to be somebody who complains the whole time.

I think we've justification here. We'll pay them a visit now, OK?

It's very nice of you to come round.

Last year, the council's Noise Squad

dealt with 3,000 complaints about commercial premises.

Different councils approach nuisance noise in slightly different ways.

Here in Westminster, if Steve and his colleagues think

a commercial premises is making a nuisance,

they can hand out a verbal warning or give them a written notice.

If the business ignores the written notice

and doesn't stop the nuisance noise,

they can be given a court summons, prosecuted and face a potential fine,

ranging from a few hundred pounds up to £20,000.

It's time to grill the restaurant

and find out why the extractor fan is so noisy.

-Hello, there. Steve Pennington, I work for Environmental Health.

-OK.

-We're dealing with a noise complaint.

-OK.

-There's some people that live at the back.

-OK.

Steve lets the burger bar know that their neighbours have had

their fill of the noisy extractor fan.

There's a noise that sounds like a helicopter's landing

in their back gardens.

15 minutes later, Steve leaves with an update.

They knew all about the problem, they've already had engineers in

and they've done some noise monitoring, and it's in hand.

So, I'm going to chase that up on Monday morning.

Obviously, now it's getting on for six o'clock on a Friday,

so I'll speak to them Monday morning

and just find out what progress they've made.

It seems like good news.

The management of the burger bar

know that they've got a problem with their extractor fan

and they're trying to do something about it.

Sounds promising, but is this the end of the case for the Noise Squad?

A week after Steve's visit to the burger bar,

we'll be with his colleague George as he's called out

to the same area to track down a mysterious humming noise.

There's a building, I don't know what,

there seems to be something on the roof,

some sort of air moving equipment. You can hear a drone.

Is it coming from the same burger bar?

It's hard to get a view of where the noise might be coming from.

It's Friday night in York,

one of the busiest times of the week

for the city's Noise Enforcement Officers.

We've got another party we've got to deal with at the moment

and then you're next on the list.

Ian Gray's worked for the Council's Noise Squad for five years

and tonight the calls are coming in and the complaints are mounting up.

I'll give you a quick call back just to confirm we've finished

and we're on our way, then you'll know when to expect us, all right?

Ian is always cool, calm and collected.

If you're going to have loud music, you have to have the doors closed

and the windows closed.

And takes an even-handed approach to all his cases.

We always have to be impartial,

but of course if somebody is suffering from nuisance,

then yeah, we have to be sympathetic.

Tonight, Ian's heading out to see a taxi driver

who says she's been driven round the bend by noisy neighbours.

Got a complaint in a block of flats, it's an ongoing complaint.

Complaint about noise, shouting, banging,

it's a council property so it's just a case of going round to the complainant,

having a listen, see if we can witness some nuisance being caused.

This is an on-going case for the council's Noise Squad

and tonight Ian's here to take a statement from Sue.

What sort of time did the noise start?

Four o'clock this morning.

Four this morning.

Oh, big party, karaoke - I heard every word,

went off at seven o'clock this morning,

they must have fallen asleep.

Come home at six and they've all just been arriving all night.

It's just kicking off. They've just been out for more booze.

Once we've been able to witness what we believe is a statutory nuisance,

we can then go ahead and serve a noise abatement notice on them,

that's obviously the best way of us progressing things from here.

So, we'll have a listen for a while, see what we think,

and hopefully by the end of...

Might not be here any more.

How many times a week are you getting problems?

Every weekend and two or three nights a week.

Sue is so fed up

she's resorted to carrying out her own sound surveillance.

In order to take action, Ian has to witness nuisance noise first hand.

If he thinks the noise is too loud, he can serve an abatement notice.

This is a legal notice that means noisy neighbours have to shut up or pay up,

because if they ignore it, and continue to make nuisance noise,

they could be taken to the Magistrate's Court

where they could get a Criminal Record

and a fine of up to £5,000.

Sue has reached the end of her tether.

Four o'clock this morning, it's unbelievable.

They have their stereo on full blast and they're doing karaoke...

absolutely full-blast at four o'clock this morning.

To be quite honest, I want to move.

I don't want to stay here.

She's obviously upset, but in order for Ian to take action,

he needs to witness nuisance noise first hand.

We'll certainly do the best to get the evidence that we can do.

Once we've got the evidence, we will act upon it.

After monitoring the noise,

Ian decides that tonight it isn't loud enough for him to take formal action,

but he and his colleagues will continue to monitor the case.

Whilst we were there, the level of noise wasn't really enough

to be what we call a statutory nuisance.

You could tell there was a bit of shouting, a bit of slamming,

obviously there'd been the makings of a party up there,

but as I say, not enough to be a nuisance at the moment.

He might not be taking action tonight,

but Ian and his colleagues will keep an eye on the situation here.

His next job is in a suburban part of town,

where a whole neighbourhood is being kept awake by a howling house alarm.

HIGH PITCHED BLEEPING

One of Ian's colleagues on the Noise Squad

visited the street earlier in the day and served a warning notice.

This meant the owners had to silence this screeching siren,

but it looks as though no-one is at home,

because Ian has been called back.

Now he's going to put an end to this racket.

They've said they've not been able to get any sleep for the last few nights,

so, hopefully by the time we've got it disconnected,

there should be peace and quiet for them again.

That's good news for the neighbours and the neighbourhood watchdog,

who's checking out the noise that's driving everyone barking mad.

Having done things by the book,

Ian's called in an electrician to disconnect the alarm.

HIGH PITCHED BLEEPING

STOPS

Peace and quiet at last.

I'm sure that's a big improvement for everybody.

They'll be able to get some sleep around here, anyway.

Because the Noise Squad have had to deal with this aggravating alarm,

the homeowner will have to pay for their time

and that of the electrician.

It'll cost them just short of £200.

All that could have been avoided

if they left the key with someone they trusted

and registered those details on the council's key-holder database.

The electrician did a nice, quick job on it.

If you've got an alarm

and want to make sure you don't have to worry about coming home from holiday to a hefty bill,

check with your council to see how to register your details.

-Many thanks for that.

-No worries.

With the alarm off, it's case closed.

It's not the end of Ian's busy nightshift, though.

We'll be with him as he's called to try

and mute a mutt that's keeping its neighbours awake.

DOG BARKS

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

And he has to deal with a boisterous birthday party.

You can't tell them to shut up.

In Westminster, Noise Enforcement Officer Steve Pennington

was called to deal with a burger bar's faulty extractor fan

that had left local residents cheesed off with the noise it was making.

LOUD WHIRRING

A week after Steve's visit to the burger bar,

his colleague George has been called out to the same area

to investigate a mystery humming sound.

George has worked for the Westminster Noise Squad for three years

and is in no doubt about how important

the service they provide can be.

Yeah, I mean, to some people, we are a bit of a lifeline, without doubt.

Unfortunately for George,

the man who called in to complain about the humming sound

couldn't pinpoint exactly where it was coming from.

It could be anything.

It could be somebody with a really loud fridge,

or it could be from a lift motor,

all he knows is it affects his bedroom.

He knows it's somewhere in the location,

but he's not quite sure where.

George arrives at the man's home just after 8.30pm.

You can hear it from here.

I can, yeah. It's coming in from outside, isn't it?

Sounds like an air conditioning unit.

WHIRRING

Sounds like an air conditioning unit probably gone wrong.

Yesterday it was like, from 4.00 until 9.00.

Sometimes it goes down a bit, but it doesn't go away completely.

Although George can hear the hum,

spotting where it's coming from isn't quite so easy.

You've never heard it like that before?

There's a building, I don't know what it is,

there's something on the roof, some sort of air moving equipment.

You can hear a drone.

Right, well, if we find out what that building is...

In order to take action against nuisance noisemakers,

Enforcement Officers have to witness the noise first hand.

If George thinks there's a problem, he can serve a written notice

that means the business will have a legal obligation to quieten down.

At the moment, he's not sure where the noise is coming from,

but the complainant is very sure he is fed up with hearing it.

I've only had it for a couple of days, yesterday was very bad.

It was from 4.00 to 9.00.

You try and ignore it, but after a while,

it's just like a humming in the background

and you only realise when it stops, you know,

you feel like, "Oh, it's really... It's gone", you know?

George thinks the humming would keep people awake at night,

so he decides to try and find the source of the noise

and have a word with the owner.

That could be easier said than done.

There's a building behind this parade of shops, I'm not sure what it is.

There is a gate here, but it's locked.

This is an organic supermarket.

It's quite a large premises, goes back some way,

but I'm pretty certain that's where the noise is coming from.

Round the back of the premises George can hear the hum,

but he still can't get a clear look at where it's coming from.

Just trying to trace the source of the noise.

Can clearly hear it,

but it's difficult to get a view of where the noise is coming from.

The best way would be to get up onto the roof,

but they haven't got any access.

The supermarket proves to be a red herring,

but Westminster's answer to Colombo is a man on a mission.

I'm still not convinced whether it's this store here,

or one of the premises to the side.

So I'm just going to have a quick look along

and see what else is here that could be a suspect.

I'm from the Noise Team, Westminster City Council.

Someone's complained about noisy air conditioning equipment.

Do you have a rear door? All right, sorry to trouble you.

George's investigations have led him to the burger restaurant

that his colleague Steve visited last week.

Is this the culprit?

Is the noisy extractor fan that was disturbing a neighbour

to blame for the mysterious hum?

I'm trying to find a noise that's been complained of,

some air conditioning or ventilation equipment.

By George, he's cracked it!

As he heads into the kitchen,

our super-sleuth confirms that this restaurant is where the problem hum is coming from.

And it's the same place George's colleague Steve visited a week ago.

-We're dealing with a noise complaint.

-OK.

There's some people that live at the back, and there's a noise

that sounds like a helicopter's landing in their back gardens.

The manager tells George they're trying to resolve the matter

and an engineer is due to visit in the next few days to fix the problem.

The noise is coming from their kitchen extraction system

which is very, very noisy, and the chef even admits it's noisy.

Um, they have got their Head Office working on it,

and they are aware of the problem.

I think we can give them more time, maybe another week or so,

and if we still haven't got a resolution by then,

perhaps look at serving a notice.

After two visits from the Noise Squad,

the restaurant say that this problem is in hand,

but there are still more complaints on the menu

for the faulty extractor fan.

One month later,

George's colleague Steve will be back at the burger bar.

Will the extractor fan have been fixed

or does another complaint mean that the fan is still faulty?

A lady out the back says now that it's worse than ever.

Elsewhere, York Noise Enforcement Officer Ian Grey is called to

deal with a barking dog that's driven one of its neighbours to the end of her tether.

It'll stop for a minute, and you think, "oh, they've let it in,"

and then it starts again.

And in Belfast, things heat up as the Police are called in to help

the council's Noise Squad deal with a boisterous house party.

LOUD MUSIC

Come to the door.

Every weekend, thousands of people across the UK

call their local Noise Squads to complain about nuisance noise.

It makes me feel that I can't live in my home.

The volume, I was asleep then I'd be woken up in the middle of the night.

Mentally, it was affecting my mental state.

Late night parties in the summer months, next door neighbours,

bottles getting smashed about.

When the weekend starts, the parties begin and the volume gets turned up.

It's the beat of the bass that you hear constantly.

This flat below us were having a party.

Now, I heard growling noises, everything.

I couldn't sleep till seven. It was actually ridiculous.

Like other cities in the country,

there are always plenty of parties in Belfast.

That means plenty of work for the Council's Noise Squad,

but with 15 years' experience between them, Jim and Tim have seen it all.

It's an interesting job because you always have to be on your toes.

You always have to be alert and that can be very draining at times,

but at the same time it can be very rewarding.

It's Saturday night.

The guys are on their way to check out complaints about loud music

that local residents claim is coming from a nearby social club.

Social clubs, for some reason,

tend to be more within residential areas than the ordinary bars.

I suppose, your bars tend to be more on main roads.

We'll take a drive over and assess it initially from the outside.

See if there's any obvious break-out points - doors open,

fire doors being wedged open for smokers, windows open.

As Tim and Jim arrive they can hear loud music,

but aren't sure where it's coming from.

We're going to get out and see, there's definitely some bass music,

but we're going to see if there's any break-out points.

If there's no break-out point,

it just means that the club has poor sound insulation,

so we'll talk to the bar manager

and say we're getting complaints from the local residents,

we need you to turn the overall volume down.

As the guys check out the area,

it becomes clear that the noise isn't coming from the social club.

This has been a case of mistaken identity.

There you go, complaints about the wrong property.

It's the hotel over there.

The social club is innocent.

The noise is coming from a hotel across the road,

where wedding revellers are having a bit of a boogie

and the music is blaring into the night.

BASS BOOMS

Before Tim and Jim confront the management,

they want to find out exactly where the noise is coming from

by checking open doors and windows.

Doesn't appear to be any...

It's a chance to play "Name That Tune."

And Jim names it in one.

Tina Turner.

For the lucky bride and groom, this day may have been Simply The Best,

but the neighbours of this hotel

feel like they're living next door to the Thunderdome!

It's time for the guys to take action.

How's it going? We're from the Council's noise service.

Jim and Tim head inside to speak to the management.

We've had a complaint from the houses just opposite.

My friend has been out and the back fire escape doors were open.

What I need you to do is ask both the DJs to maybe lower the bass level

and get the door staff to ensure that those doors remain closed.

-I don't think we've been here before.

-We haven't.

It's something that needs checking on.

When it comes to noise,

the Noise Squad have the authority to shut down any unruly ruckus.

We've spoken to the bar manager.

The fire doors had been left open when they were changing beer kegs.

They've closed them and hopefully that's remedied the problem.

The hotel and wedding party vowed to keep it down

and no further action was necessary.

If you're being disturbed by noisy neighbours,

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

Your local council are on hand to deal with any problems,

so, pick up the phone and give them a call.

On a busy Saturday,

there's rarely time for Tim and Jim to take a breather.

Hopefully this rain will drive the dogs indoors

and will not be barking when we get out.

It's often the busiest night of the week.

We're just going to take a look and see if we can witness any noise.

There's an entertainment, maybe?

It's a couple of houses away, so currently it's not actionable.

They've been called to a house-warming party,

where they're worried they might get more than a frosty reception.

LOUD MUSIC AND VOICES

We've had a complaint about a very loud party in this end property.

We've driven past it and had a look at the number of people there,

and how they're behaving.

So, for the sake of our own safety, we're looking to maybe approach them

with a police escort and serve a legal notice on them that requires them to abate the noise

and threatens them with a £100 fine.

Noisy neighbours are a serious problem

and cause huge amounts of stress and worry.

Different councils deal with nuisance noise in slightly different ways.

Here in Belfast, the team have a range of powers

to deal with any problems they witness.

If they feel the noise is too loud,

they can dish out verbal and written warnings,

hand out on-the-spot fines

and, in extreme cases, they can prosecute the guilty parties,

which could result in a criminal record

and a fine of up to £5,000.

With their years of experience,

Jim and Tim know that a big crowd of people,

alcohol and the late hour could all add up to trouble,

so they've called for the police to back them up.

Tim has to beat the door to be heard over this ridiculously loud music.

Come to the door.

After Tim shouts over the music, someone answers the door.

-Can you get me someone who lives here, please?

-Pardon?

-Get me someone who lives here.

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

It's time for Tim to lay down the law.

I work for the Council's noise service.

-Yeah.

-We're getting complaints from your neighbours, obviously.

-Your music is far too loud.

-Oh, right.

I can fine you a £100 spot-fine with reference to the noise.

If we come back tonight, you will get fined a £100 fine.

What I need you to do is close the windows, that keeps the noise in,

ask all your friends to stay inside as much as possible.

We've told the neighbours we're having a house-warming.

It's absolutely bouncing, it's disturbing the whole street,

it's not just your direct neighbours, OK?

We need you to close the windows,

keep the music turned down because actually that keeps the noise down.

Tim's warning is very clear.

He's given the homeowner a written warning.

This means she has to turn the music down.

And if he and Jim get called back tonight,

she'll be hit with a £100 fine.

The fact that all the windows are open just accentuates the problem.

They said they told their neighbours,

but it's bouncing the whole way down the street.

We've talked to them about the noise aspect,

the police will talk to them about the anti-social behaviour aspect.

We've served a legal notice threatening a £100 fine.

The girl that lives there says it's a house-warming party,

she'll get it under control, there'll be no further complaints.

Hopefully that'll be the case.

In this instance, the written notice threatening a £100 fine

did the trick and no further action was necessary.

In York, Noise Enforcement Officer Ian Grey is having a busy night.

We're going to sort that out, that shouldn't take long,

then we'll come straight to yours and see if we can sort things out.

He's been to monitor nuisance noise on a longstanding case

and silenced a faulty house alarm.

HIGH-PITCHED BLEEPING

Now he's on his way to deal with a complaint about a neighbour

who's been woken up by a barking dog.

Here we go.

Just park anywhere round here then, I guess.

As he arrives, the barks can be heard loud and clear.

BARKING

Ian's come to see Julia,

who called in to complain about this pesky pooch.

I've gone to sleep and then it's woken me up again

and that just made me come down and ring the police,

cos I didn't know what else to do.

The lady in the control room said it was the Environmental Health number

and gave me your number.

The barking has been driving her bonkers.

It'll stop for a minute, and you think, "Oh, they've let it in,"

and then it starts again.

Ian goes upstairs to monitor the noise from Julia's bedroom.

DOG BARKING REPEATEDLY

It's no surprise she's been kept awake.

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

Julia was so fed up that she called the police,

but she didn't even know about the council's specialist Noise Squad.

I didn't know they existed till I phoned the police,

so I don't know what they can do, I suppose,

other than talk to the people and not let them leave it out there.

But I don't know whether it becomes RSPCA

and dog warden kind of involvement. We'll see.

When it comes to nuisance noise,

Noise Squads all over the country are the law enforcers,

not the police.

They can issue a written warning,

ordering the noise makers to stop the noise.

If further warnings are ignored, they can face a day in court,

get a criminal record and have to

pay a fine of up to £5,000.

Having visited Julia, it's time for Ian to take action.

Just take a quick look to see if there's anybody home.

Just knock on the door.

He's going to talk to the dog's owners.

The owner appears at the window

and Ian has a word about their noisy dog.

Hi. I'm from the Council noise patrol. I've had a complaint...

The owner explains that they fell asleep

and that their dog was locked outside,

but now they brought it into the house.

Ian though, will still be taking action.

What we're going to do now is send you a warning letter next week

so, hopefully, we won't get any more complaints.

I'll leave you to get back to sleep. OK, all right.

With the dog inside, there were no further complaints

and no further action was necessary.

Serenity has been restored in suburbia,

but elsewhere in the city,

there's nothing serene about a boisterous birthday party.

Ian knows that late-night parties where the drink is flowing

can sometimes be a recipe for trouble.

I think there's going to be a bit of grief.

He knocks on the door and explains the problem.

Just had some noise complaints about the music,

so, I've come really to see what's going on.

-It's my girlfriend's 31st birthday.

-31st? OK.

There's a birthday bash going on,

but as it's almost 3.00 in the morning,

Ian explains that it's time to start winding down

and the music is switched off.

It's getting late now, so if you could start winding things down now.

I've turned it off.

The only thing now is people's voices, I can't do nowt about that.

Keep the noise level down.

We can't tell them to shut up.

Yeah, but if it starts getting noisy,

keep an eye on it and ask a few people to be quiet.

The chap is co-operating with Ian.

He's turned off the music and promised to keep the party-goers quiet.

Well, they've turned the music off, which is one thing.

So, hopefully it's going to be quiet enough for the complainants to get some sleep

which is the most important thing.

Still probably going to be a bit of noise

from people still sat out there, voices,

but hopefully it's going to be quiet enough so it's no longer a problem.

Situations like that, when people have been drinking quite a lot, always get a little bit chaotic.

It's been a busy night for Ian, but his cool

and calm approach got a result in a potentially difficult situation.

There were no more complaints about the party

and no further action was necessary.

In Westminster, a faulty extractor fan in a burger bar

is making sure peace and quiet isn't on the menu for local residents.

The restaurant has been visited by two of the council's Noise Team,

who were assured the matter was in hand.

They knew about the problem, they'd already had engineers in,

and they'd done some noise monitoring and it's in hand.

They have got their Head Office working on it, and are aware of the problem.

I think we can give them more time.

Four weeks after the Noise Squad were first called about the fan,

Steve, who dealt with the original complaint,

is on his way to the restaurant again.

It was quite an awful sound, hell of a din,

coming from the extraction system.

Something had gone wrong, it's difficult to know exactly what,

but it needed addressing quickly.

Today we're heading back there

to ensure that everything's been done to our satisfaction.

Problem is, is that we've had a number of complaints

just in the last few days.

Steve has arranged to meet the project manager Mark

and engineer Tom to find out what's been going on.

He explains that the Noise Squad have been called by another resident,

who's been driven to distraction by this faulty extraction fan.

A lady out the back, a neighbour of the original complainant

phoned and said the original complainant's gone on holiday.

I said, we're going down tomorrow for a complaint visit.

Now it's worse than ever.

I was under the impression that it was sorted out last week.

In fact, it was sorted out yesterday, and told them to

-give me an update. What he's done is balance the extraction.

-Brilliant.

It's taken slightly longer than they'd hoped,

but engineer Tom explains that the problem has now been sorted.

We've put some plates in it to balance the air flow.

So, there's not so much air from the far canopy, so now we've turned

the fan down to get more extraction over here where they need it.

The fan has been given an emergency clean

and the speed of the fan has also been reduced.

-Super, right.

-Just have a look out the back.

Can we switch it on?

It's on now.

We parked round the back, I couldn't hear it.

Could you actually hear the noise?

It was making a... It was like an aircraft landing.

Exactly, yeah, yeah.

That all sounds great, but Steve needs to hear for himself

if this faulty extractor fan really has been fixed.

Put it back to 100% and let you hear the noise it makes.

I can put it right back up. Shall we do that?

Yeah, give it a...

So, it gives you a gauge of where it was and where we're at.

The engineer cranks the fan up to its old levels

and it's easy to hear why it was such a problem.

WHIRRING

That is pretty bad.

Yeah, that's hitting it now.

Getting louder now.

It can take two or three minutes for it to get full whack.

Time now to turn it down and see how big the improvement is.

You can barely hear it over that, over the chiller.

SLIGHT HUMMING

Whereas before, you could certainly hear it over that.

It's certainly extenuated quite a significant amount.

Steve's happy and Tom the engineer has made sure that the extractor fan's settings

can't be turned back up to problem levels,

so this case should be sorted.

Right, shall we go round?

Fixing the fan has been a tricky job for the restaurant,

but they've taken the problem seriously and sorted it all out.

Mark and Tom go with Steve to meet the lady who's most recently complained.

She's the third person to call the Noise Squad about the extractor fan

and she lets them know how cheesed off she's been.

We haven't really been able to use the garden this summer at all.

It's been quite bad in the house, that's why I don't open the windows.

But even with the windows closed and it goes on, as you know,

till 11.30, 12.00 at night,

so, I go to bed late - with this loud noise.

Project Manager Mark has listened to the lady and is keen to make amends.

I'm so sorry.

We've tried to act on this as quick as we can.

The extraction company have been looking at it for the last couple of weeks

and finally cracked it.

We've made alterations to it.

We've clad it in the brickwork

which will add a certain amount of soundproofing.

Would it help if you had my direct phone number?

Yes, I have to say it's not a new problem.

It's been, as you know from the Council,

certainly going back ten years.

I've turned out correspondence of my husband's, different restaurants, same noise.

They were a visual eyesore, this is supposed to be a conservation area.

The Noise Squad and the restaurant have worked hard to resolve this problem

and Steve's keen to know if the lady is happy with the result.

What do you think about the level now, now the works have been done?

Well, it's miles better. I'd call that a faint hum.

There is a hum there.

Get rid of that, that would be wonderful.

We might be able to take it down a bit.

With this resolved, Steve passes on some friendly advice for the future.

We always say to people if you haven't got a problem speaking to a business,

and most people don't, have a word with them.

We're happy to hear about it, really.

If communication breaks down, or there's an issue,

or a dispute, then we'll mediate.

After all the trouble that the extractor fan has caused,

Mark wants to make sure there's a happy ending.

Is there anything we can do to make it up to you?

If my sons were here, they'd probably say a few free burgers.

I can pop you lots of vouchers in.

-Well, that would be kind.

-OK, I'll do that.

I'll bring you a stack of vouchers in, you can use them when you like.

-Oh, that would be very kind.

-No problem.

That's a lovely gesture. Thank you very much for that.

Nice one, Mark! That's a good way to end this sorry saga.

Just liked to have solved it a bit quicker for the lady.

I didn't realise the noise was so bad until I came down to the site and had a look.

It was pretty bad.

So, we've resolved it, hopefully, and put that one to bed,

and I'll send her some vouchers in the post and everyone's happy.

Steve's kept abreast of this case from the very start.

Thanks to good communication and the restaurant's willingness to sort the problem,

he didn't need to serve a formal written warning.

I've just finished there with that restaurant and it's a good result.

The complainant is happy.

We've managed to resolve quite a serious noise complaint

purely by negotiation and a bit of prodding.

The restaurant management have been excellent,

and they haven't tried to slow things down, or deter us from doing our job.

They've been very co-operative and like I say,

we've had three complainants in total, now,

come out of the woodwork complaining about this issue.

It's quite welcome to see that today, the problem has been resolved.

Indeed it has. Well done, Steve!

Job done, case closed.

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

They've dealt with faulty extractor fans...

You try and ignore it, but after a while you notice a humming in the background.

Barking dogs...

It'll stop for a minute, and you think, "Oh, they've let it in," then it starts again.

Noisy parties...

Can you get me someone who lives here, please?

And annoying alarms.

They'll be able to get some sleep around here now, anyway.

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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