| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Peter Atkinson (Hexham): My hon. Friend could overcome the problems with his house alarm by fixing one with a 20-minute cut-off, as is required for outside alarm systems under the Environment Act 1995. Moreover, does he agree that many people regularly leave their dogs outside at night?
Mr. Hargreaves: My alarm was designed to cut out earlier than 20 minutes, but for some reason beyond my control it did not do so. That, too, may be a problem for constituents in my street who may be away visiting sick relatives. What can they do about their alarm going off? Those people are not deliberately making an excessive noise that disturbs others. The cause of the noise may be beyond their control.
There is difference between them and those who deliberately continue to make a noise after they have been asked to turn something down. In the former case, my constituents and I have taken every possible precaution to prevent noise nuisance to others. I am sure that those people, like me, do not object to paying up or running round and apologising most profusely to their neighbours, because they are responsible people.
The Bill refers to those who are not responsible and who are not accountable for their actions. They will not think of their neighbours, and may deliberately continue after they have been asked to turn the noise down.
Mr. David Evennett (Erith and Crayford):
As one of the sponsors of the Bill, I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his remarks, and I shall certainly pass them on to the promoter, my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North (Mr. Greenway). Does my hon. Friend agree that the noise caused by a burglar alarm is an occasional occurrence, whereas the Bill is designed to deal with those who persistently offend night after night and cause distress and hardship to neighbours through their thoughtlessness and lack of consideration? My hon. Friend's comments are relevant and interesting, but he is talking about occasional noise caused by a burglar alarm rather than noise that is made night after night.
Mr. Hargreaves:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, but those who make such occasional noise incur the same penalty as those who are persistently noisy. That is why I should like that part of the Bill to be reconsidered.
The hon. Member for Vauxhall and some of my hon. Friends have spoken about the possibility that the Bill might cover noise from cars playing loud amplified music. I may be wrong, but I believe that, under the law, a car is a piece of private property, so noise emanating from a car should be within the compass of the Bill.
In my street in Battersea, as well as in my street in Hall Green, I have frequently complained, together with my neighbours, about a young gentleman in one case and a young couple in the other case who cruise down our street, stop and enjoy themselves for perhaps 20 minutes while playing music loudly. At the height of the summer, everyone has the windows open--as do the occupants of those cars--and I can tell my hon. Friends that the music from that young gentleman's car was so loud that glasses in my house rattled, such was the thump of the bass speaker.
I cannot say to my hon. Friends in all honesty that I would have had the time on the first two occasions to rush off and ring the environmental health officer so that the noise patrol unit in Wandsworth could race round. By that time, that young man and his friends would have left. Nevertheless, it is a serious problem, because it winds my neighbours up to an extraordinary level.
That individual has a perfectly good home to go to, and there are plenty of other places where he could play his music, but he chooses to come to a residential street late at night--always between midnight and about 2 o'clock in the morning--to play his music so loud that it makes glasses rattle in my house. That noise comes from a car, not from my next-door neighbours. I am not passing any comment about the sort of music he plays--everyone is within their rights to play whatever music they like--but it should not disturb my peace and that of my neighbours. Why should he be allowed to sit in his car outside my house or those of my neighbours and play his music loudly? A car is private property and the scope of the Bill should be extended to cover such property as well as residential property.
Mr. Robert Banks:
Did my hon. Friend speak to the people in the car who were causing the problem and,if so, what was their reaction?
Mr. Hargreaves:
On one occasion I went to speak to that person on my own behalf and that of my neighbours. I cannot repeat in the Chamber the language that met my request. Had I not been vaguely familiar to the occupants of that car, I might have been met with violence as well. My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the usual reaction from such people, who do not respect either the privacy or the person of other people. They are likely to react violently or intimidatingly, and they are not likely to take any notice of those who simply ask them to turn the music down a bit.
Noise from cars is a serious noise nuisance. The worst thing about it is that it can lead to serious violent confrontation, and occasionally racial confrontations, when such music is played on and on and any requests for quiet are ignored. I hope that in Committee we shall be able to extend the scope of the Bill so that some remedy is available for those who suffer from noise nuisance of that type.
I hope that the promoter, my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North, will forgive me if I am not here for the winding-up speeches, because, like my hon. Friend the
Member for Halesowen and Stourbridge (Mr. Hawksley), I have a constituency engagement and I may have to leave the Chamber.
Mr. Peter Atkinson:
To switch off the alarm.
Mr. Hargreaves:
I hope that I shall never have to do anything else to my alarm.
Mr. Tony Banks (Newham, North-West):
As the hon. Member for Birmingham, Hall Green (Mr. Hargreaves) has had his alarm serviced, he is one of the most unfortunate people that I have ever come across.I congratulate the hon. Member for Ealing, North(Mr. Greenway) on this Bill, and I am pleased to be a sponsor of it--however, I have a number of points in relation to the detail of it, which I hope will be taken up during the Committee stage. I apologise to the hon. Gentleman for not being present during his speech:I promise to read it in Hansard, immediately after I have read the Scott report--so I may be some time. Judging by the interviews that I heard on the radio this morning, Ministers are now calling the Scott report the "We all got off scot-free report".
The hon. Member for Southwark and Bermondsey(Mr. Hughes) is absolutely correct about the Scott report.I will not detract in any way from the political and constitutional significance of the Scott report, but I know--[Hon. Members: "Order, order."] When did the House get a collective Chair? I was about to say that I will not detract from the Scott report's long-term political and constitutional significance, but merely point out that I receive far more letters about noise pollution than I will receive about the Scott report. I am trying to put this issue into some sort of context. Yesterday the Chamber was packed and there was a considerable amount of noise, but today it is quiet.
Obviously all hon. Members know something about noise--we make a lot of it, particularly at Prime Minister's Question Time. That part of our proceedings receives the most criticism from outside--people are offended by the boisterous activity they see--but, in many respects, that criticism is misplaced. Noise in this place is a product of the atmosphere. It is rather like a football stadium, particularly when it is packed, and everyone cheers on their side--even when it is playing rubbish. If our constituents were forced to be crammed into this place for Prime Minister's Question Time they would behave in the same way as Members of Parliament. I have always been ready to defend Members of Parliament in terms of their conduct at Prime Minister's Question Time.
Our constituents bring their noise problems to us on a regular, and depressing, basis. I find--as I am sure is the case for all hon. Members--that problems involving noisy neighbours are some of the most intractable that Members of Parliament receive. Another problem is that one hears only one side of the story--they tend not to turn up in pairs. I have had instances where one neighbour comes to
me and complains and a few days later the other neighbour comes to me, and the stories are completely different.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |