THE noisiest road in the whole of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole can now be revealed.
Christchurch Road, which runs from Lansdowne Roundabout to Iford Roundabout, had the most reported noise complaints in 2023.
A Freedom of Information request by the Echo has revealed there were 43 complaints made to BCP Council throughout the year.
And the three-mile stretch of road through Lansdowne, Boscombe and Pokesdown is also the road with the most serious injury or fatal crashes, as previously reported.
Christchurch Road knocks Osborne Road in Winton off the top spot, which this year had nine complaints.
The data shows six residents complained of a noisy party, eight were of loud music and one was down to a barking dog.
Wimborne Road came up in second place with 40 noise complaints made in 2023 and Commercial Road in Ashley Cross is third with 31 complaints.
In total, residents of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole made 2,524 complaints to the local authority over noisy neighbours.
Bournemouth Road, between Pottery Junction and Ashley Cross, had the most noise complaints made about businesses at 17.
Meanwhile, residents in Nairn Road, Talbot Woods, have been the most angered by the construction work with five complaints.
And Fredrica Road in Winton has knocked Osborne Road off the top spot as the party street in the conurbation with its seven complaints for parties.
Bishop Road residents, also in Winton, also played the music the loudest, angering six people so much that it was reported to BCP Council.
Responding to questions from the Echo, a spokesman for BCP Council said: “There were 71 more complaints in 2023 compared to 2022.
“There have been no major policy changes in complaint gathering in this period.
“The council has powers under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to enforce unreasonable noise that meets a statutory level.
“Where a statutory noise nuisance is witnessed, a noise abatement notice can be served.
“Prosecution for breach of a noise abatement notice can attract an unlimited fine and criminal record.
“The council operates an out of hours noise service and would encourage residents to report noise concerns to the environmental protection team.”
The permitted noise level is measured using A-weighted decibels (dBA), the unit environmental noise is measured in.
If the underlying noise is no more than 24 dBA then the permitted noise level is 34 dBA.
If the underlying level of noise is more than 24 dBA then the permitted level of noise is 10 dBA above the underlying noise.
Anything louder than this is considered to be excessive noise.
If someone doesn’t comply with a warning notice without a reasonable excuse, councils can give a fixed penalty notice (FPN) giving them the chance to pay a fine (up to £110 for dwellings and £500 for licensed premises) within 14 days, instead of being prosecuted.
Or they can prosecute them if they don’t issue an FPN or if the person responsible doesn’t pay the fine on time (if convicted they can get a fine of up to £1,000 for dwellings and an unlimited amount for licensed premises) or remove noise-making equipment like loudspeakers.
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