Noise mongers

There are proposals to crack down on people playing loud music and videos without headphones on UK public transport, as other passengers find it disturbing and inconsiderate.

I can’t say I’m especially bothered by loud noise on trains and buses, although I’d rather not have to listen to music I personally dislike.
 
In fact most passengers on public transport here in Northern Ireland are actually quite considerate and do wear headphones or keep the noise level down.
 
There are certainly more important things to complain about than noise mongers. Like buses that come late or not at all. Like buses with no luggage racks. Like the deterioration of public services generally.
 
What does annoy me is restaurants that aren’t designed to dampen conversations, so you have to virtually shout to make yourself heard against all the prevailing chatter.
 
Also of course the background musak that assaults you in so many restaurants, shops and other places. Polls say the majority of customers would prefer silence but for some reason they’re ignored and the music blares on regardless.

Put a sock in it

There are proposals in England for new laws to stop people playing music and videos out loud on their phones on public transport.

Many people find such behaviour intrusive and provocative when they're hoping for a few minutes' peace and quiet on their way to work or wherever.

In most cases people are either nervous about confronting the noisy person or if they do they're likely to get a mouthful of abuse and told to fuck off.

Personally I'm not much bothered by noisy individuals but I can see that others might be thoroughly exasperated by such inconsiderate actions.

At least they're not having intensely personal conversations that are better aired in some more private location. I mean, do you really want the whole carriage to know that your wife is divorcing you or you've just been sacked? Suddenly a bit of restraint takes over.

Other people's quirky behaviour on buses and trains isn't a big issue for me - unless they're stripping off or puking or screaming. I'm more concerned that they go where I want them to go, they're frequent, they come at the advertised time, and there are seats available.

The days when it was customary for train carriages to be in stony silence as the passengers scrutinised their copy of the Times are long gone. Nowadays you expect a fair amount of background noise on your journey.

The neighbour from hell

I'm always fascinated by those acrimonious neighbour disputes that just go on and on for years, disputes that surely could have been easily resolved a long time ago with a bit of common sense and compromise.

This one is a splendid example. Yoga teacher Kristyna Robinson endured seven years of misery from her upstairs neighbour Sandra Eveno, until the landlord, the local council, obtained a repossession order on Ms Eveno's flat and she was forced to leave.

Ms Eveno had shouted and screamed unremittingly, had tried to take over their shared garden, had accused Ms Robinson of drug dealing and gang violence, and had made false allegations to her other neighbours and her employer.

Ms Eveno was ordered to pay £15,000 towards the council's legal bills.

Hopefully this will end Ms Robinson's seven-year ordeal - unless Ms Eveno continues to pester her former neighbour despite having moved out.

Clearly Ms Eveno's irrational behaviour suggests serious mental health issues, but I can't see her seeking therapy. More likely she'll persecute her new neighbours just as badly and get evicted again.

We had a similar neighbour dispute when we moved into a London flat in 1993. The young lads downstairs held late-night parties every few days. We asked them to have fewer parties but they took no notice and in the end the local council imposed a huge fine for noise nuisance and they moved out.

We had another neighbour dispute in a previous flat. One of the downstairs occupants had a persistent hacking cough, and when we tentatively told him it was disturbing us, his response was to let our car tyres down.

Which is why we're now glad we live in a detached house with no neighbour nuisance whatever.

Silence that alarm!

Noise is a big factor in our everyday lives but it isn't discussed very much. We all react to noise in different ways, depending what the noise is and depending on our personal likings and aversions. Some things I can easily screen out while other things totally get on my nerves. The things that annoy me:

• Background music in restaurants and shops, especially music I dislike. I prefer silence so I can focus on conversation.
• Music blasting out of people's cars
• Souped-up cars with roaring engines
• Car alarms and security alarms
• Motorbikes
• People having loud phone conversations on public transport
• Leaf blowers. Why can't the leaves just stay where they are?
• People rustling food wrappers in a cinema or theatre

The things I'm okay with:

• Mild background noise when I'm falling asleep
• Jenny's occasional snoring
• The sound of pigeons
• The sirens on emergency vehicles
• Planes taking off from the nearby airport
• Chewing noises
• People tapping their feet
• The noise from washing machines
• Chainsaws

I'm glad I've still got good hearing, despite the deafening rock concerts I went to when I was younger, which left my ears ringing for hours. I'm also glad I don't have tinnitus, which is very common, incredibly annoying and unfortunately not curable. Thankfully also I don't have hyperacusis or extreme sensitivity to noise, so sounds always seem louder than they should.

Now excuse me while I go and sabotage a few leaf blowers.

Unbearable noise

Some people find everyday noises so disturbing they have to get away from them. They simply can't endure someone chewing gum, tapping their fingers, slurping tea, snoring or sniffing. As yet it's not clear why they react so strongly to sounds most people would just find slightly irritating.

I see there's a word for this common condition - misophonia. I'm glad to say I don't have any such aversion to certain sounds. There are lots of things that slightly annoy me but no more than that.

Jenny has a strong antipathy to tea-slurping, noisy food-chewing, snoring and sniffing. Whether her antipathy is greater than other people's I have no idea. But it means I have to be careful to avoid the habits that set her off.

It's estimated that 18 per cent of the population have misophonia - an extraordinary figure that amounts to 12 million people. They often think they're alone because it's something that's hardly ever discussed. Apparently there's an assumption that women are more prone to it than men, but that isn't the case.

There are some sounds you might think would drive me crazy, but for some reason they don't. When we lived in a flat in London, the woman upstairs was forever walking round the flat in high heels. She made quite a racket but I was able to disregard it. Likewise another flat-neighbour had a hacking cough throughout the day and often during the night as well. I imagine both sounds would drive misophonics clean round the bend.

One advantage of blogging is that my blogmates aren't exposed to whatever noisy habits I might be guilty of. I might be slurping my tea like a thirsty elephant but nobody knows except me.

A mug's game

I'm always fascinated by neighbour disputes, especially the really crazy ones that go on for years and cost a fortune. What motivates people to push these disputes to the bitter end, whatever the financial and emotional cost?

Cilla Carden of Perth, Australia, is planning more legal action against her neighbours, citing their cooking smells, cigarette smoke, chairs scraping on concrete, reflective light, the sounds of children playing basketball, and pet birds.

Seriously? Aren't all those things just what you would expect from a family enjoying their home? Are they meant to creep around super-silently, avoiding any kind of noise or smells or signs of their existence? I would say Ms Carden is ludicrously intolerant and unable to live and let live.

Jenny and I have had a few problems with neighbours, but there's no way we would pour money into lawyers' pockets to deal with them. There are always other ways of sorting things out.

We once had a flat in a London mansion block, and the neighbours were fond of riotous all-night parties. We kept a detailed diary of the disturbances and asked the local council to take action. The neighbours were fined a large sum and moved out shortly afterwards. Result!

A few years before, in another block of flats, our downstairs neighbours were amazingly noisy, one with a constant hacking cough we could hear all too clearly. We asked them politely if they could be less noisy, but their response was to let down our car tyres.

While we were still wondering what else we could do, they moved out and were replaced by a much quieter couple we befriended. Problem solved.

Now we live in a detached house so neighbour nuisance is less likely, though we did have some neighbours who were also fond of late-night parties. Luckily they tired of such revelry, two of them moved out and the one person left is quiet as a mouse.

Legal action? It's a mug's game.

Windswept

I'm all in favour of wind farms, if they help prevent global warming. But it seems they're so noisy that people living close to them are going through hell.

The constant swishing and beating of the turbines is not only disturbing and distracting but prevents people sleeping. They're said to be as loud as helicopters, planes or express trains - and all day every day.

Jane Davis and her husband Julian have had to move out of their Lincolnshire home because of the racket. "On a bad night it's like three or four helicopters circling round" said Jane. She was getting only three hours sleep a night.

Ron Williams in Cumbria has to take sleeping pills and describes the turbine noise as "like a Chinese torture." Lynn Hancock in Cambridgeshire says it's like "a seven-ton lorry left running on the drive all night."

The government seems blithely unconcerned about the turbines' effect on people's health and well-being. They just want to get as many running as possible to increase their green credentials.

According to one report, they actually ignored a recommendation that the maximum decibel limit should be 33 and allowed a higher limit of 43.

How many MPs live near wind turbines and have first-hand experience of what they're like? I suspect none of them, which is why they're so indifferent. Perhaps some of them should visit the affected homes and see why the residents are so angry.

People living near airports already have to put up with worsening noise disturbance as the airports expand to allow more and more flights. Belfast City Airport is a case in point.

If people living close to wind turbines are now expected to put up with the same sort of daily background din, this is complacent officialdom at its worst. Either the noise-battered residents should be helped to relocate or the turbines themselves should be quietened down. Otherwise the whole idea of wind farms will take another hammering.

Pic: Jane and Julian Davis