Information Bulletin
24 May 2005
Noise Action Week 23 - 27 May 2005
For Noise Action Week 2005, Shetland Islands Council’s Environmental Health Service will be working with Community Mediation to raise awareness of the impact of noise and the simple measures that can be undertaken to prevent or resolve neighbourhood noise problems.
Environmental Health received 74 noise complaints in the last financial year of which two resulted in the service of statutory notice. This is a significant increase in the number of complaints recorded the previous year (12) due to a new out of hours reporting arrangement with the Northern Constabulary.
On 26 May 2005, the Environmental Health and Community Mediation will be at the Toll Clock Shopping Centre between 9.30 am and 4.00 pm to provide advice about dealing with noise.
What to do if you have neighbour problems -
You should
- If possible speak calmly with the person face to face. This is far more effective than letters, messages, shouting, banging on walls or talking to everyone else but them.
- Tackle the problem at an early stage, and bring all the issues into the open from the start.
- Plan a convenient, safe and sensible place to talk. It may not be a good idea to try to talk to someone in the middle of the night or when they've had too much to drink.
- Think about what you want to say before you speak to someone. It is important to be clear about what you think and how you feel about things.
- Listen! Trying to speak to someone who isn't listening is very frustrating and can make a situation worse. By listening you may also learn something you didn't know about the problem.
- Try to accept that people are different, both in attitude and in ways of life. But be firm about things that cause you a lot of inconvenience or harm.
- Take a positive view. Aim for sorting the problem out and staying (or getting back on) good terms.
- Check out that you are both clear about, and happy with, what you have agreed.
- If your informal approach fails, or you feel unable to approach your neighbour, contact Environmental Health who may be able to take enforcement action to prevent further noise nuisance.
You should not
- Ignore things, hoping they'll go away of their own accord. They probably won't.
- Shout, be abusive, swear or threaten people. This will make things much worse.
- Be too quick to blame other people or make assumptions about them. There may be things you don't know about and people aren't usually deliberately annoying you.
- Exaggerate the issue, or bring in things that don't concern the problem. This will just confuse things.
For further Information about Noise Action Week contact Environmental Health on 01595 744841.
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