Should incessant, tinkling Muzak be banned?

THANK goodness Nigel rodgers is taking a stand on background noise in shops, hotels and restaurants (Mail). I was in a queue in Nationwide directly under speakers blaring out pop music. The staff were surprised when I said I didn’t come into a building society to listen to music, but to conduct serious business. I was told customers liked it and it was intended to create a pleasant environment. For whom, I wonder? Anyone who is hard of hearing would struggle to conduct a conversation. I wouldn’t inflict my taste in music on strangers and find it thoughtless that Nationwide does. Instead of paying fees to the Performing rights Society, Nationwide could spend the money employing another member of staff to cut the queue. I have taken my business to a quieter bank.

JACKIE ANDREWS, Barnet, Herts. MUZAK was playing in the lounge on a recent river cruise, so quietly reading a book was not an option.

Have you noticed how a certain popular restaurant chain that doesn’t play background music always seems to be full?

C. COTTON, Fareham, Hants. I WEAR hearing aids, so find Muzak in public places a total nuisance. To try to block out background noise, I turn up my hearing aids only to find they enhance the music, which means I can’t follow a conversation. Muzak leaves me feeling excluded in social gatherings.

M. CHILTON, Otley, W. Yorks. WHEN I complained about the Muzak in my local coffee shop, I was told: ‘Management insist we have it on as customers like it.’ In fact, I wasn’t the only customer complaining and asking for it to be switched off. They left it on.

Name and address supplied. NIGEL RODGERS has had considerable success in ridding public places of Muzak. Please can he turn his attention to Tv documentaries, which are infested with loud, distracting and irritating dubbed-in background music. I have to press the mute button and resort to subtitles.

Mrs IRIS RAMKISSOON, Abingdon, Oxon.

IT MAY well be inappropriate to play loud pop music in a garden centre (Letters), but having to listen to it in the dentist’s chair is even worse.

TONY THOMPSON, Banbury, Oxon. I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree about unnecessary, inappropriate and irritating noise. Background music on Tv is even more infuriating. I watch tennis with the sound off. In nature documentaries, why does a deer run across the savannah with a full orchestra in tow?

RAY FEELY, Stockport, Gtr Manchester.