Noise bylaw to be proposed by county councillor
Complaints from constituents concerned about late-night noise are prompting a Colchester County councillor to initiate discussion about the creation of a noise bylaw for the municipality.
“It just keeps coming back to us,” District 9 Coun. Doug MacInnes said. “I think it’s time we had a noise bylaw in Colchester County.”
MacInnes said he has been told by residents who call police about noise complaints to address the issue with their municipal councillor because without a noise bylaw in place, the complaint can’t be enforced.
“It seems to be a catch 22 (situation),” he said, of the prevailing attitude when complaints are made. “If the noise bylaw is not in place they are not breaking the law.”
An example he provided was a situation involving a landlord with a tenant who persistently plays loud music late at night. Even though the landlord lives in the same building, MacInness said, the tenant won’t cooperate with requests to lower his music volume because of the lack of a bylaw.
MacInnes had planned to introduce a motion at last Thursday’s Council Committee meeting to have staff investigate the issue.
However that meeting was rescheduled to tonight because of storm postponements.
The municipality used to have a noise bylaw in place until August 1999 when it was repealed at the request of the RCMP because of the cost to enforce noise complaints and also because the province has noise statutes in place.
“We are frequently called for a complaint where there is excessive noise,” Colchester District RCMP Staff Sgt. Al Carroll said.
“We do attend. We try to speak to people and make them realize they’re disturbing the neighbours.”
In most cases, he said, requests to reduce the noise level are complied with.
However, if there is a situation where a resident will not cooperate and persists with creating a loud noise during late-night hours, the person can be charged with disturbing the peace, which is a criminal offence.
“We would rather not reach that point,” Carroll said.