RECENTLY, I have found the sirens on emergency vehicles to be at torturing levels in volume.

They wail and whine all day long, penetrating inside your home from more than a mile away.

When stuck in traffic gridlock, the natural state of Brighton and Hove, they up the ante to a new level of brain-frazzling inferno, as if noise alone will de-materialise the traffic.

Pity the poor creature stuck inside an ambulance; you can only hope he or she is deeply unconscious, otherwise they’ll be banging on the doors, begging to be set free to hobble home.

Lights a-blazing, we can all see these wagons approaching, and at even 20% volume Beethoven would hear them from his grave.

Why not install a friendlier warning such as the two-tone hooter on a train? They are totally audible yet unobtrusive.

I wrote something along these lines to Your Voice Counts on the police website. I received a reply that the sirens accord with national standards – so that’s OK then.

We never actually see a police officer on the street – they are just an alien presence; screeching about the city in loud, unfashionable dayglow.

Perhaps they should return to the basic value of keeping the peace.

Rob Silverstone, Daubigny Road, Brighton