It would seem that any old complaint from anybody about noise is assumed in the first instance to be a valid one. The validity of the complaint must be investigated first.

My experience of making a formal representation to support a licensing application for my local pub was that it was ruled not to be valid.

The danger seems to be that once any form of noise complaint is made, all council departments seem to become involved in insuring that some form of resulting sanction is applied and such sanctions will affect non-amplified music, which is not presenting any noise concern, as no distinction is made.

http://www.muswellhilljournal24.co.uk/content/haringey/muswellhilljournal/news/story.aspx?brand=MHJOnline&category=news&tBrand=n

Muswell Hill ward councillor Jonathan Bloch also called for a "no discos or DJs" rule, no amplified live music and for the licence to end with the building lease.

In an open letter to objectors, Mr Shelmerdine agreed to many curbs and said "no-one has ever complained to the police or the council about any of our parties" held when the café was last licensed, between 1999 and 2005.