Hundreds complain of noisy neighbours

More than 300 complaints were recorded in Sunderland as noisy neighbours caused a headache during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic.

Sunderland City Council recorded 312 noise complaints linked to neighbours

between April 2020, and March this year – an average of 112 complaints for every 100,000 people.

That was in line with figures from the previous year.

The figures follow a Freedom of Information request submitted to local authorities by Churchill Home Insurance and found there were more than 368,000 complaints about noisy neighbours lodged to 267 councils in 2020-21 – a 28% rise on the previous year.

Steven Williams, from Churchill, said: "As we go into more of a ‘new normal’, many will carry on working from home, at least part of the time, so noise could continue to be really disruptive.

“It may be the case that neighbours don’t realise they are being noisy, so the first step should always be speaking to them and explaining the problem.

"If that doesn’t work, keep a record of the type of noise and time of day and speak to the local council about raising a potential noise complaint.”

The Local Government Association said councils were working to tackle the problem.

Nesil Caliskan, from the LGA, said: "With many people living in high density, urban areas, complaints about noisenuisancearecommon.

"Councils are doing what they can to respond to noise complaints in communities, and to tackle persistent behaviour that makes people’s lives a misery."