City deserves its reputation as the noisiest place in Britain

From: Peter Haddington, Prospect Place, Eccleshill, Bradford.

IN response to articles reporting that Leeds officially tops the list for being the noisiest city in the country, I cannot say that this finding surprises me in the slightest.

I have lived in the Leeds area for a large part of my life and have had my fair share of noisy neighbours during that time, including two lots of residents next door who liked to party until the early hours of the morning.

When I hear councillors making statements like their team are doing a great job with this problem, and are achieving real results, my answer to that would be that statistics rarely lie – over 27,000 complaints about noise in the last three years, and my own experiences, suggest otherwise.

Leeds City Council always has a high level of interest in solving problems when there’s money to be made but the fact that so many complaints have been made about noise speaks for itself, and shows the council is not on top of the problem.

I lived in a flat in Leeds for a few months. There was constant noise next to me including door slamming, shouting out of windows both day and night. I complained several times to the council but little was done. I had a similar experience some years later but, once again, the council did little to help.

All the problems I have had regarding noise have always been with people who claim benefits.

I have nothing whatsoever against people who claim benefits who are entitled to them, but I do have a problem with people who claim benefits stopping people who do work getting a good night’s sleep.

If these people had their benefits suspended until they agreed to stop the noise permanently, and only had them reinstated when they stopped being a nuisance to others, that would help to solve this particular problem.

There are people out there sleeping on the street who would love a roof over their heads, so how is it fair that some people in rented accommodation are allowed to abuse their tenancy agreement when there are many desperate people needing homes?

Fortunes are being collected in ever increasing council tax, what sort of a service are these people paying for when their lives are being made a misery by some thoughtless residents? The problem of noisy neighbours is a lot more widespread than some people realise and these latest statistics tend to confirm this.

Until a much stronger deterrent and swifter action is taken against people who make excessive noise, these complaints will continue to escalate.