Ah, she's a good girl is our Pandora! 

Thank you both.  It wasn't the noisy neighbours that made Mum move, but because she realised that, at a very physically and mentally active 82, it may not be too long before she'll need some help, if only occasionally. If all had gone according to plan, she would have moved here before the noise situation had got too bad. Still, we never know why these things happen, do we?

I may pop in every so often, just to see how everyone's getting on, especially the regulars. Mind you, wouldn't it be great if people didn't need top be regulars in here?  Bless you, Pandora, for your gift of 'giving', which comes over so strongly in your posts. Keep up the good work, but I really hope and pray that your situation gets sorted soon. X

Hopefully a brilliant an quick result. My mum's neighbours were very much the same - started as soon as they moved in, and took no notice whatsoever of any requests or complaints. Very oddly, after Mum and the neighbours on the other side 'had a go', they moved out just three days later. 

Oh wow!  Wonderful letter, Mac! 

Hello and welcome to the forum for the noise weary! I'm afraid to say that most police forces will have nothing to do with noise matters and, unless they believe that someone is actually being seriously hurt (and obviously the woman is denying that), they won't take action.  Youre best bet, in the first instance is to make a record of the disturbance and times for two weeks or so (yes, it has to be that long, sorry!), then call the Environmental Health dept at your local council, and ask for advice. I just hope for your sake that you have a helpful council.

There are no clear answers to your last questions, I'm afraid, Beth. What one council does right, another doesn't or won't. Although the laws on noise control are clear, councils all interpret them differently. Some seem to interpret them as that they need to nothing at all, sadly!

No, noise laws don't distinguish noise at night any differently to noise during the day, although the hours of 11pm - 7 am are considered to be hours of sleep. We have to realise, though, that there is often more background noise during the day than there is at night, which means that any noise nuisance during the night is usually all the more noticeable.  Any official recording equipment will be calibrated against the level of sound during the day. Does your neighbours' clock vibrate as well as sound loud?  I ask simply because that adds to the sound nusiance if it does.

I might agree with you, Cobra, if it wasn't for the fact that this clock is unlikely to be picked up much on recording equipment, and therefore no action could or would be acted upon.  I'm not saying that action shouldn't be taken, just in reality, even the best EH dept would take action.  Even if it were taken to court, I doubt anything much could be done. After all, Beth has said that the music gets longer during the day, which means that recording equipment would have to be left on 12 hours a day. Can't see that happening somehow although, for Beth's sake, I hope I'm wrong.