2 September (Part 1) - Neighbour from hell
There can be few things worse, within a domestic setting at least,
than constant noise from a neighbour. Long ago I lived in a flat from which I
could hear every intimate noise from the couple above and when I graduated to a
semi found myself at the opposite end of the argument. For me, Sunday was a day
for DIY and my neighbour believed it was an excuse to stay in bed until the
afternoon. Since then the likelihood of noise problems has been a significant
factor for me when choosing a place to live. The end of my cul-de-sac could hardly be
more peaceful without returning to my country roots. Others are not so lucky.
A couple of months ago an occasional correspondent said…
I’ve just had a very interesting conversation with the emergency duty officer
at the council. I’m currently suffering from a very serious noise disturbance. I
rang the council who put me in touch with 101 [police] who could not care less. I was
passed back to the emergency duty officer, having been told it is one hundred
per cent the council’s responsibility to deal with noise complaints. The poor
officer informed me that he was inundated with noise complaints at the weekend.
“There is a huge number of them, well, noise complaints naturally occur at the
weekends, don’t they?” the officer presumed.
“However, the council saw fit to cut environmental health cover at the weekends”, he said.
I gather nobody has listened to him on this, he was keen that I raise it with the powers that be.
It
must be hell for those affected, some people have no consideration and feel that
non-stop riotous parties are their right. Another
occasional correspondent who lives in Sunland Avenue, a little south of Broadway
and Crook Log, has the same problem and been in frequent contact with the
Environmental Health people since the end of last year at least. He was asked to
log the noise nuisance but Environmental Health then appeared to lose interest.
(A possible reason will become apparent later.)
As the weather heated up so did the noise nuisance and the police became involved
but this neighbour from hell was no respecter of other people’s rights, he
retaliated by building a wall to block out the affected neighbour as far as possible.
Unfortunately that neighbour was not at all pleased to see the wall was built right up
against his detached house - on his land! This was a step too far for
my correspondent and on 18th April he hand delivered a letter of complaint. It was
ignored, so my correspondent sought the assistance of a solicitor.
The solicitor wrote on 31st May and his letter was ignored too. He wrote again on
2nd July with the same result and with patience fast running out wrote another
letter on 9th August, recorded delivery of course, and that too fell on stony ground.
The next stage is the engagement of a builder to remove the offending wall. A
fourth solicitor’s letter has been sent to confirm exactly what is proposed…
…and as you can see it is a model of reasonableness and politeness. However it firmly reiterates
the fact that the trespass must be reversed.
Some neighbours evidently think they can do whatever they like, just like some Bexley councillors
do. But that is no coincidence. This neighbour is a Bexley councillor! Not one you know much
about, he has been barely mentioned on Bonkers but is one of the eleven who believes he is
under threat from Bexley residents. He hides his address under the
provisions of Section 32 of the Localism Act.
I’m tempted to use Olly Cromwell’s epithet from when he pictured an unidentified
councillor’s house and ask “What sort of…”. Oh, perhaps not. Incidentally, Olly moved
back to the borough over the weekend after a two year absence. Maybe we will see
him in the council chamber again.