Warwick District Council has no plans to reintroduce its Night Noise Service where officers went out to investigate noisy parties and events on a Friday and Saturday night.

Instead, a telephone app is being used which allows residents to record up to 30 seconds of any disturbance which can then be investigated.

The matter was raised at this week's cabinet meeting of Warwick District Council when the introduction of a noise policy was discussed.

A report from Lorna Hudson, the council's environmental health and licensing manager, explained that noise complaints had risen over the past six years.

She added: "The pandemic introduced procedural challenges for witnessing noise nuisance, which officers had to address to ensure a good value for money service under the Covid restrictions.

"This included the introduction of the Noise App (TNA) which enables officers to make a quick judgement of a noise that helps determine what action is necessary to progress an investigation."

The report added that work carried out highlighted the need for the council to draw up a noise policy which clearly explained the process, the actions that they could take and the assessment process. It would also outline expectations for customers, service users, members and officers.

Cabinet members were told that the out of hours service had not been operated since March 2020 although noise nuisance complaints had continued to be investigated. 

And the report added: "The pilot of the new arrangements has demonstrated that they work well in terms of being able to offer clients a wider window for arranging pre-arranged visits. Officers also have fewer restrictions on them and more freedom to organise their cases and workloads."

Cllr Ian Davison said: "This is a huge issue for residents in south Leamington and with over 1,000 cases a year at the moment, it is clearly a huge issue across the district.

"It seems as if this might actually be one of the few positive outcomes of Covid because the old system just couldn't work – moving into the modern age like this is really useful."

Cllr Moira-Ann Grainger added: "Any policy where we can make things more understandable to our residents, officers and elected members can only be a good thing. It might look as though we are trying not to do stuff but we can only do what we are allowed to do within the law and statutes.

"Perhaps we need to make some people realise that the noise they don't like is only playing for one day and is someone else's good time. Everyone has to live together and sometimes we have to take stock."