Hi-fi equipment seized from noisy neighbours will be given away to worthy causes.

Brighton and Hove City Council's environmental health team has filled a storeroom with stereo systems, speakers and CDs taken from persistent offenders who refuse to turn down the volume.

Ten stereos, two DVD players, 500 CDs and ten pairs of speakers, including one set more than 1m tall and suitable for a nightclub, are housed in the store-room at Bartholomew House, in Bartholomew Square, Brighton.

Environmental health team officers are now calling on charities, schools and old people's homes to contact them if they can make use of the equipment.

The give-away will mark national campaign Noise Action Week, which runs until Friday.

Roy Pickard, manager of the noise nuisance team, said: "Loud noise can be absolutely horrendous. It can really affect people's quality of life. It can cause lack of sleep and if people have children, it will affect their concentration at school.

"People have shot their neighbours due to noise in other parts of the country. Luckily, that hasn't happened here. But noise can get that bad."

The environmental health team deals with almost 3,000 noise complaints a year. Most are about loud music, dogs barking, loud machinery, car and burglar alarms, DIY, building work, noisy neighbours or fireworks.

More unusual complaints include noise from seagulls, squirrels, cockerels, police and ambulance sirens. One was about a noisy pig being kept in a first-floor flat in central Brighton. This was investigated but no pig was found.

The majority of complaints can be resolved informally, either by a letter or visit, when advice on measures to reduce noise are given.

If this does not resolve the problem, Noise Abatement Notices can be served on the perpetrators, requiring them to take all necessary steps to stop the noise nuisance.

A total of 95 notices were served on residential and commercial premises in 2005/2006.

The council can take offenders who continue causing noise problems following an abatement notice to the magistrates courts, where fines up to £5,000 for residential premises and £20,000 for businesses can be imposed.

The council also has powers in serious cases to seize noisemaking equipment, including stereos, musical instruments, CDs and records. These items are returned to the owners in 28 days unless a prosecution is taken, when the court can order forfeiture of the equipment.

Five prosecutions for noise offences were taken last year for loud music, TV, shouting and swearing, banging on walls and floors and slamming doors.

In one incident, a council tenant and her daughter were each fined £2,000 for four offences together with costs of £750.

Stereos, DVD players and bags of CDs which had been seized in three separate raids on the flat were forfeited by the court.

Charities, schools and old people's homes can get their hands on seized equipment by calling the noise nuisance team on 01273 292437 or emailing roy.pickard@brightonhove.co.uk