North Lanarkshire tops Scots league for noise complaints

NORTH Lanarkshire has topped a Scottish league for noise complaints – according to research commissioned by one of the country’s leading insurance companies.

According to a media release (here) issued by Churchill, the local authority received 9,100 complaints about noise during the year 2020/21, down 13 per cent on the previous year.

That placed North Lanarkshire eighth in an UK league, topped by Dudley, in England’s West Midlands, with 26,000 complaints.

In a table of UK nations and regions, Scotland placed fourth (on 35,643 complaints), behind London (123,919), West Midlands (50,049) and South-east England (43,522).

The research followed Freedom of Information requests to the UK’s 381 local authorities, of which 272 (71.4 per cent) responded and 269 (70.6 per cent) responded with ‘usable data’.

Says the media release: “Neighbour noise has had a negative impact on the mental health of almost a third of Brits (32 per cent), some 16.7 million people, with neighbours playing music seen [as] the worst noise for mental health (34 per cent).

“This was followed by the noise from children (30 per cent), garden noise (30 per cent), parties (29 per cent) and neighbours coming and going at anti-social hours (24 per cent). 

“Nearly half (43 per cent) of Brits, 22.7 million people, believe themselves to be more aware of noisy neighbours now than pre-[COVID] pandemic, while over a third (39 per cent) are more aware of their own noise now.”

Picture credit: Place Design Scotland