Thousands complain about nuisance noise

A Freedom of Information request has revealed there were 2,551 complaints about nuisance noise put into the council in 2014, with two people convicted of noise related crimes.

The vast majority of complaints related to noisy neighbours, people shouting or playing loud music in their homes and barking dogs.

The research - carried out by noise monitoring company Cirrus Research - showed that just under ten in every 1,000 people in the borough complained about noise last year.

Thomas Shelton, marketing manager at Cirrus Research, said: “We work with many local authorities and housing associations which have to deal with the complaints daily about noise nuisance. 

“They have a duty to investigate each allegation, see if there is any substance, gather evidence and then take action. 

“What one person thinks is acceptable could drive someone else crazy so noise enforcement teams have a difficult job at the best of times.

“We conducted our research based on complaints per 1,000 population to get a more accurate picture. You would expect a large city such as Sheffield to have one of the highest number of complaints with over 4,200 but when you look at the size of its population - relatively speaking, it is actually quieter than Rotherham and York.”

The total number of complaints made to councils across Yorkshire in 2014 was 40,662.

Is nuisance noise driving you to distraction? Email us at [email protected] or tweet @rotherhamtiser with your experiences.