Hundreds of York residents told to ‘keep it down’ as noisy neighbour complaints double

The number of noisy neighbours warned to keep the volume down has more than doubled in the past year in York – and that is before lockdown started.

City of York Council sent 622 warning letters about noise nuisance from homes between April 2019 and March 2020 – up from 293 warnings the year before.

And 29 noise abatement notices were served – with four people taken to court for failing to quieten down.

The latest figures only go up to March 31 2020 – just seven days into lockdown when people were first encouraged to work from home.

Jane Mowat, the council’s head of community safety, told a council meeting: “During Covid we were not able to go into people’s premises in order to collect evidence as this requires two officers to be present. We suspended the service.

“We have introduced a technology based solution – residents can collect video and recording evidence themselves using a mobile phone.

“They can submit that to the officers who can then determine whether to install noise recording equipment.

“We are able to install equipment, my staff have all got full personal protective equipment so they are now able to undertake home visits but again this is subject to risk assessments and is only being done in the most severe cases.”