Noisy Wedding Parties in the Church next to my Flat!

theartfullodger

Bleedin' religious extremists... Glasgow knows all about religious extremists..

Fire_Fox

anotherginger wrote: »

For some local authorities the police do deal with noise outside of office hours, so the advice about police not dealing with this anymore isn't correct. You need to find out what happens in your local area as it differs based on your council and your police force.

In terms of EH, they only need one complainant to investigate. To be honest, a petition from all your neighbours isn't necessary, and really just slows down the investigation because whoever is dealing with the complaint will have to liaise with 8 people rather than 1, which just wastes a lot of time. It is better for EH to deal with the individual who is affected the most in their property, because then it will be easier for them to identify a problem and serve a notice.

Here Environmental Health, Planning, Licensing and the police all advise that the more individual complaints/ submissions the easier their job is and the better the result is. I have had direct and indirect dealings with them all on several cases due to being involved in a community group. The advice may be different when dealing with problems with or complaints against individuals, I have knowledge of issues with organisations or businesses who were 'hosting' events or hiring out venues.

And I said MOST noise complaints, not ANY.

anotherginger

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Here Environmental Health, Planning, Licensing and the police all advise that the more individual complaints/ submissions the easier their job is and the better the result is. I have had direct and indirect dealings with them all on several cases due to being involved in a community group. The advice may be different when dealing with problems with or complaints against individuals, I have knowledge of issues with organisations or businesses who were 'hosting' events or hiring out venues.

It depends on the legislation. For a statutory nuisance investigation carried out by EH, only one complaint is needed and indeed any notice served would be based on what is witnessed from one property. For licensing, you may wish to prove that there is a public nuisance (one of the licensing objectives) so more complainants would be necessary. The police may have their own threshold, in this area they try send a unit out if they have more than one complainant. Planning - not relevant to a noise complaint unless there are conditions regarding hours of use or set noise limits, which is unlikely as this would lead to duplication of other powers available and therefore quite likely to be unenforceable.

If your EH department don't investigate a single complaint about noise then they are breaching their statutory duty. Their advice cannot not be different when dealing with individuals or groups as the law does not allow for this.

Anyway, back to the OP. I would suggest writing to the church in the first instance to see what they plan to do about the issue. If you aren't getting anywhere then I would approach your Licensing department, to check whether these events had the correct permission. If this doesn't resolve the issue contact Environmental Health. And, keep a diary!

dimbo61

The church is what 80/100 years old and the flats were built afterwards.
It looks beautiful in the pictures and video and the cost of maintaining such a large old building must be huge.
Using the building for weddings, concerts, funerals is what it was built for.
Our local church has a church clock which rings/chimes every 15 minutes 24 hours a day.
The EH can restrict or limit the noise the venue can make or restrict the hours weddings can take place but will this cause the church to close down ?
Many churches are struggling in the current climate

Davesnave

When my daughter was married in July, we hired the Assembly Rooms in the town's Square for the reception. Just before the festivities ended, I went out for a breath of air and found myself being transported back through time....

Suddenly, it was 1964. I was standing there in the Square listening to the amplified music belting out, wishing I looked old enough to get past the bouncers on the door.....

To be honest, the music at the reception went on a bit longer than it did nearly 50 years ago, but it wasn't as loud. Over that period hundreds of people have lived in the Square and 'enjoyed' not only live rock & roll, but street fairs, shouting drunks and legions of teenagers revving up their scooters & modified cars. As a bonus, they also get to hear the church clock strike every quarter hour.

There's no shortage of people willing to rent the flats on the Square. In fact there are probably more flats than ever, as some shops used to have empty rooms above them when I was a lad.

Somehow, life goes on.

19lottie82

dimbo61 wrote: »

The church is what 80/100 years old and the flats were built afterwards.
It looks beautiful in the pictures and video and the cost of maintaining such a large old building must be huge.
Using the building for weddings, concerts, funerals is what it was built for.
Our local church has a church clock which rings/chimes every 15 minutes 24 hours a day.
The EH can restrict or limit the noise the venue can make or restrict the hours weddings can take place but will this cause the church to close down ?
Many churches are struggling in the current climate

I don't have anything against 95% of the events that take place there.

If it was your 8 year old daughter that was crying at 1140pm because she was being woken up by an abba medley being belted out at full blast, would you be so concerned about the churches heritage?

Ps if you are convinced the flats surrounding the church are less than 80 years old then I'm guessing you're not a fan of Glaswegian architecture :-)

beecher2

dimbo61 wrote: »

The church is what 80/100 years old and the flats were built afterwards.
It looks beautiful in the pictures and video and the cost of maintaining such a large old building must be huge.
Using the building for weddings, concerts, funerals is what it was built for.
Our local church has a church clock which rings/chimes every 15 minutes 24 hours a day.
The EH can restrict or limit the noise the venue can make or restrict the hours weddings can take place but will this cause the church to close down ?
Many churches are struggling in the current climate

It was a Free Church so doubt there was ever much in the way of music! Most of the tenements around the building were probably built at about the same time as the church.

Not been used as a church for a long time, and the CRM Society is a charity. I don't see why the OP should put up with smoke and noise in case the charity can't afford the running costs.

19lottie82

Ps and yes, of course I agree, of course churches were built for marriages - but not for 8 hour long booze sessions afterwards, complete with a DJ and PA!

beecher2

19lottie82 wrote: »

Ps and yes, of course I agree, of course churches were built for marriages - but not for 8 hour long booze sessions afterwards, complete with a DJ and PA!

I'm sure there's more than a few Free Churchmen turning in their grave at the mere thought of it!

dasophster

I sympathise as we have a similar problem with the scout hut behind here. They don't hold parties as often as when we first moved in but when they do they are 5-7 hours long and always have the same carpy DJ and his super loud sound system. The soundproofing on the scout hut building is non existent. I appreciate they need to fundraise but so many other fundraising events are held there that I am sure are adequate enough xx