Area sees high rate of complaints about noise
PEOPLE in Kirklees are among the most likely in England to be annoyed by their noisy neighbourhoods.
Residents in the area had one of the highest complaining rates in the country when it came to noise in 2018/19, making thousands of complaints to their local councils about neighbours, commercial activities, construction, and traffic.
Recent BBC research suggests locked down households could be experiencing even more annoying noise than usual - with councils seeing a rise in complaints.
Figures published by Public Health
England (PHE) reveal in Kirklees, people complained about noise 3,760 times in 2018/19.
That was a rate of nine complaints for every 1,000 people, higher than the national rate of seven complaints per 1,000 people.
Calderdale, meanwhile, saw a lower rate of noise complaints, at five for every 1,000 people, a total of 1,112.
Earlier this month, the BBC contacted 103 councils across the UK and asked if they’d been getting more noise complaints since the lockdown began in March. Out of 51 responses from councils, 44 reported some kind of rise.
Across England, there were 382,347 complaints to local authorities about noise in 2018/19, based on statistics collected by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH).
Residential noise accounts for the largest proportion of noise complaints.
CIEH recorded 143,054 noise complaints from a survey of 143 local authorities (45% of all local authorities in England).
Of those, 69,369 were for residential noise.
That is the case across all regions in England, according to the report, except the South East, where residential noise accounted for a smaller proportion of complaints than noise from commercial or leisure premises and construction.
Anne Godfrey, CIEH Chief Executive, said: “These figures remind us that noise continues to be a major issue of complaint made to local authorities across England.
“Noise has profound impacts on people’s health, wellbeing and quality of life. Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs) are on the frontline of resolving noise complaints and deserve recognition for their important contribution to supporting and protecting the nation’s public health.”
Health issues associated with noise not only affect individuals’ quality of life, but also generate significant social costs for taxpayers.
According to the European Environment Agency, noise pollution has a negative impact on productivity via a combination of distraction, fatigue, and interruption of communication.
This loss of productivity amounts to approximately £2 billion a year.