Welwyn Hatfield runs extended noise nuisance service
Past success has prompted Welwyn Hatfield to expand its late-night noise nuisance service to tie in with a university’s exam period.
Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council is again running an extended noise nuisance call-out service to tie in with the local University of Hertfordshire’s exam period for students.
Working with the support of the University, the borough council is providing its call-out service on Sunday-Thursday, 10pm-3am for two weeks, from 16 May to 31 May, to coincide with the end of term and the University’s exam period. A large number of students live in the local community.
The authority provides its regular noise call-out service — Operation Reprise — service on Friday and Saturday evenings at the same time.
Excessive
Last year saw the extended noise service handled 118 calls from residents affected by excessive noise created by a wide range of sources, not only students. The normal out-of-hours noise service. Operation Reprise annually deals with over 450 complaints.
A spokesprson from the council noted that it had “powers to deal with noise that causes disturbance from many different sources including houses, pubs and factories, parties, animals, and car and house alarms.”
“We are pleased to be working in partnership with the borough council to address residents concerns about noise”
— Geraldine Ward, deputy dean of students
And, the spokesperson added that: “Extensive work has also been carried out by the University recently to educate students about their behaviour within the community. It is hoped that this year, complaints to the service will be fewer than in previous years.”
Councillor Bernard Sarson, executive member for governance and Public Health, said: “Some instances of noise nuisance can be resolved by a request to simply ‘turn the volume down’ but where necessary, we have powers to intervene, mediate and – if necessary – take action. This service has worked very well in the past and we’ve received some excellent feedback from residents about its success in bringing them a more peaceful night.”
Geraldine Ward, deputy dean of students at the University, said: “We are pleased to be working in partnership with the borough council to address residents concerns about noise, for a fourth year.”