A WOMAN has told to keep the noise down at her house or face the courts again after neighbours repeatedly complained to City of York Council over two years.
Karen Parker, 60, blamed the loud music and shouting coming from her Acomb flat on her partner.
“I don’t want loud music,” she said. “I don’t like loud music.”
The council prosecuted Parker after receiving many complaints about the noise from her flat between January 2019 and June 2021.
Victoria Waudby, prosecuting for the council at York Magistrates Court, said it had served Parker with a noise abatement notice on March 2 this year.
But on March 16 there was another noise complaint and Parker was warned she would be prosecuted if she didn’t turn the volume down.
There were at least eight more complaints in March, April and May.
On June 11, between 3.40pm and 4.10pm specialist council officers assessed the noise and declared it was a statutory nuisance.
On June 22 between 11.27 and 12.04, after yet another complaint, they again assessed the noise level of the loud music from the flat and again declared it was a statutory nuisance.
It was so loud it caused the floor of the neighbouring flat to vibrate and officers there could clearly distinguish which music was being played.
Parker, of Thoresby Road, Acomb, pleaded guilty to two breaches of the noise abatement notice.
“I am sorry,” she said. “I live on my own.”
She claimed her partner no longer came to her flat.
She was given a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £300 towards prosecution costs and a £22 statutory surcharge.
She lives on benefits.
Magistrates told her they were putting her on trust.
They warned her that she would be resentenced if she was again convicted of breaching the noise abatement order or committed another offence within a year.
Stereo equipment found at the flat was confiscated. She claimed it belonged to her partner.
A man in the public gallery who called Parker “Mum” was expelled from court for being too noisy during the case.
Cllr Denise Craghill, the council's executive member for housing and safer communities, said: “Noise nuisance is antisocial and it is not acceptable.
"People need to consider their behaviour and its implications on neighbours and act reasonably.
"This nuisance impacted on neighbours going about their normal day to day activities or sleeping at night.
"When council officers advise residents about excessive noise and it doesn’t stop, we will serve noise abatement notices.
"They are a warning that if the noise does not stop, prosecution is possible.”
Anyone with concerns about unacceptable and persistent levels of noise should visit www.york.gov.uk/noise for more details.
To report noise from domestic properties, contact the Neighbourhood Enforcement team on (01904) 551555.
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