THE PRESS TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 1982. Quietening noisy parties
People who are troubled by noisy neighbours late at night must be forgiven for thinking that no-one in authority is willing to do much about their problem. The Government may have come up with a Community Noise Control Bill, which is at present under study by Parliament’s health and welfare committee. But neither local authorities nor the police seem keen to take on responsibilities that the bill sets out. ?
The bill proposes that local authorities, and electricity supply authorities, should act to control or arrest annoying parties, as well as other sources of troublesome noise. Neither of these authorities are eager, or even willing, to assume such responsibilities and have told the Parliamentary committee so. The police, in turn; have told the committee that they do not want the primary'role in controlling noisy parties. ■ '
The police are entitled to some sympathy for' this stand. Their stated reason for taking it is that their manpower and other resources are insufficient to deal with all the complaints they receive at busy , times of their week; they must give complaints that seem to entail danger to life or property higher priority than complaints of irritation or disturbance. At the same time, it must be faced that intervention by anyone other than the police when a noisy party is in full swing is likely to be ineffective, or to provoke defiance or aggression that will make the trouble even worse.
The solution to the problem may not lie in having local authorities appoint noise control officers armed with powers that would be inadequate in most circumstances when noise from parties • disturbs neighbours. If more officers are to be appointed to erase or subdue the problem
of noisy parties, they should be police officers.
The problem needs to be kept in perspective. Not all complaints about noise are justifiable. Some of the complainants may be over-sensitive, intolerant, or cantankerous; neighbours should be prepared for those around them to have the occasional festivity that may cause some disturbance. In this, as in many similar situations, a readiness to live and let live is needed; putting up with irksome behaviour from time to time on the assumption that one’s own. behaviour is probably irksome to someone else is probably more necessary than having more police officers and a more closely policed society.
Some complaints are clearly justifiable, especially if noise is persistent, night after night, or week-end after weekend. A lack of consideration for sleeping infants,, sick or distressed neighbours, deserves rebuke. The police should have the resources, and be ready, to act when distress, rather than temporary irritation, is caused. Deciding which is which, is a problem that the complainant should help to solve. ■ ’ ; "•
Another proposal in the Community Noise Control Bill, that noise abatement notices should be issued if people persist in making noise late at night in defiance of their neighbours’ requests for peace and quiet, is a proposal well worth pursuing. The police should be prepared to treat the breaking of a noise abatement notice as a serious offence. They would probably be willing to do so because the existence of such a notice; will be an assurance that they are being called in only when there is a genuine and persistent problem and only when the normal process of adjustment and tolerance within a neighbourhood have proved to be of no avail.
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Press, 2 March 1982, Page 18
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569THE PRESS TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 1982. Quietening noisy parties Press, 2 March 1982, Page 18
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