A car workshop has been cleared of breaching a noise abatement notice.

Ocean Coachworks, in Luther Street, Brighton, denied four offences of failing to comply with the notice, which ordered the firm to keep its main workshop door shut unless there were genuine business reasons for opening it.

The car bodywork repair company was prosecuted by Brighton and Hove Council, which issued the notice in May last year following complaints from local residents.

The council claimed the door was being left open unnecessarily for long periods causing a noise nuisance.

An environmental health officer monitored the noise for four-and-a-half hours over four days in June last year from a nearby resident's garden.

But during a two-day trial at Brighton Magistrates Court, company boss Ken Poundsbery denied keeping the door open for no good reason and claimed he had done all he could to comply with the notice.

He said at the time the firm was accused of breaching the notice a workman was building a wall at the rear of the workshop and needed to transport cement and 20 tons of ballast from the front to the back of the building.

The court heard there had been a long history of complaints about noise from the workshop, which has been on the site since 1946. Three noise abatement notices have been issued in the past ten years.

District Judge Paul Tain cleared the firm of all four offences. He said: "The prosecution have entirely failed to make me sure the reasons for the door being open were non-genuine business reasons."

After the hearing, Mr Poundsbery said: "I am over the moon. I certainly hope this is over now. Most of my neighbours don't complain."