After a rather pleasant and enjoyable Christmas Day, I simply wanted to get into bed and have a jolly good rest.

However, from the moment I got through my door I discovered there was a very loud party taking place somewhere behind my house.

There was loud, booming music and plenty of shouting to go with it.

This was at about 11pm on Christmas Day.

After two calls to the police, who politely said there was no longer anything they could do due to changes in the rules regarding noise, I was directed to the Brighton and Hove City Council, which is now responsible for noise disturbance.

I rang the noise patrol number only to find that they had taken the Christmas holiday off and would not be back until January.

I felt this was fair enough and turned to the council’s out-of-hours emergency telephone line, only to be told once again that the noise patrol units were on holiday and, therefore, nothing could be done.

So there I was facing a sleepless night until the party finally ended, knowing that at times when parties are most likely to get out of hand and disturb people in the neighbourhood, there is nothing that can be done about it.

Ryan Kearsey
Hova Villas
Hove