The music’s over for noisy neighbour

A Moulsecoomb resident has been ordered to pay £1774.50 and had his music equipment seized for breaching a noise abatement notice.

Clive Goodall, of Hawthorn Bank, pleaded guilty to the breach at Brighton Magistrates Court on 28 March 2017.

Mr Goodall was served a Noise Abatement Notice in August after reports to the council’s out-of-hours noise patrol led to them witnessing loud music coming from his flat late at night.

After several warnings following further complaints over the autumn, council officers witnessed Mr Goodall disturbing his neighbours by playing loud music, shouting and banging on 5 December 2016.

A warrant was obtained to remove all noise making equipment from the flat, which included sound systems, CDs and a DVD player. 

The Magistrates gave Mr Goodall a two year conditional discharge and ordered him to pay full costs to the council of £1754.50, plus a £20 victim surcharge. They also agreed that the sound systems, DVD player and CDs would be forfeited and not returned.

Councillor Gill Mitchell, chair of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability committee said: “Like all anti-social behaviour, noise nuisance can cause a great deal of distress. Our officers gave Mr Goodall every opportunity to comply with the terms of his noise abatement notice and, in the end, we had no option but to take the matter to court.”

“I’d like to thank our noise team for their great work to restore some peace to the lives of Mr Goodall’s neighbours. I’d urge anyone experiencing noise nuisance to report it to us.”

Our noise patrol operates on Friday and Saturday nights between 10pm and 3am, and can be contacted by calling 01273 293541 or emailing outofhoursnoise@brighton-hove.gov.uk.   

For more information, visit www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/noise