Westminster tops list of councils dealing with noisy neighbour complaints

Westminster City Council has topped the list of local authorities dealing with complaints about noisy neighbours, new figures have revealed.

The council dealt with nearly 10,000 complaints, closely followed by the London borough of Haringey.

Across the country, councils received nearly 300,000 complaints about noisy neighbours in the past year, according to the study carried out by insulation manufacturer Rockwool.

The figures for between April 2008 and April 2009 were compiled using the Freedom of Information Act, with responses received from 332 of the 436 councils.

Councillor Daniel Astaire, Westminster Council's cabinet member for community safety, said: "Westminster is one of the most densely populated areas in the UK and this kind of cheek-by-jowl living, which so many people enjoy, can create problems with noise.

"To combat this, we are the only local authority in the UK to run a 24-hour noise team and we respond to 97% of calls within 45 minutes.

"We take a tough line with those who blight the peace - last year we prosecuted 20 people over noise and served 862 noise abatement notices.

"In some ways we are a victim of our own success because we actively encourage people to call and even advertise the phone number on the side of rubbish trucks.

"People call us because they know we are there and will do something about it. It means we get more calls - but it doesn't mean we have a greater problem."

The best place for peace and quiet is the Isle of Scilly, where no noise complaints were made to the local council in the past year.