Abatement notice for humming!

Subject: Abatement notice for humming!
From: GUEST,The Shambles
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 03:52 AM

http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/whereilive/localheadlines/9142172.Father_of_autistic_man_handed_abatement_notice_for_humming_

Autistic man Dean Harman received an abatement notice for humming too loudly in Kidbrooke council flat

John King comments:
Greenwich Council can't afford to keep libraries open but they can afford to pay for this idiocy.

Subject: RE: Abatement notice for humming!
From: Mo the caller
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 04:08 AM

It may be idiocy. Or it may not. Until you have lived in the next flat there is no way of knowing.
The headline, and thread title are misleading. Complaints were about "humming, groaning and shouting". Making it sound like a quiet folk song distorts reality.

Maybe the real idiocy is cooping people so closely in jerry-built flats in the first place.

Subject: RE: Abatement notice for humming!
From: GUEST,The Shambles
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 04:12 AM

The idocy referred to is perhaps all the expense involved in issuing the notice - and then withdrawing it.

Some detailed investigation undertaken before the notice was issued may have avoided this?

Subject: RE: Abatement notice for humming!
From: Dennis the Elder
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 05:39 AM

Being an EHO and having had complaints very similar to this one to deal with I have sympathy for all concerned, the target of the complaint, the EHO in question and the complainant.
Life is not simple and no doubt the EHO felt that there was a justifiable complaint, before issuing the Notice.
I must admit my colleges and myself have found more amicable solutions to our similar complaints. Generally we have contacted family, Social Services, Area Health and other medical or charitable bodies and so far not had to issue notices to alleviate what have been serious problems for the neighbours. I agree with Mo, some of the modern houses, flats etc are built with little regard to possible noise problems. Many older Semis and terraced houses also have similar structural inadequacies in preventing the transfer of sound from one dwelling to another.
I also have sympathies for the views of The Shambles in this and other threads.
Many times the local EHO is placed in extremely challenging situations and cannot always find a solution to problems that satisfy all concerned.

Subject: RE: Abatement notice for humming!
From: GUEST,The Shambles
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 06:40 AM

Thanks Dennis for your usual reasoned views. If only this were the case everywhere.

It seems to be overlooked that in this case the landlord responsible if the required soundproofing was lacking, for placing this tenant in these these so-called jerry-built flats in the first palce and for issuing the abatement notice - were one and the same council.

Where I have much sympathy with those who are really suffering and feel forced, after making their own attemps to reach a solution, to make a perfectly valid complaint, there are I'm afraid, those who make complaints for reasons other than the ones they state. Often these are the same individuals who are repeatedly complaining at every available opportunity. The same machinery swings into action whether the complaint is valid or not.

Such opportunities for persistent complainers seem to be increasing.

Subject: RE: Abatement notice for humming!
From: Little Robyn
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 06:47 AM

There's a similar situation here in NZ - a lad with Aspergers/Autism with a fixation on electrical fittings was caught "looting" after the Christchurch earthquake and although the owners of the building had already vacated it and were not worried if the lad took anything, the police are trying to make an example of him.
The story is here.
From the photo (the police wouldn't do that to him??? He must have walked into a door!!!) he looks to me as if he might be a fetal alcohol baby as well. He certainly has a few problems.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Abatement notice for humming!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 06:52 AM

I know a young woman whose life is made a misery by a man in adjacent flat who watches porn very loudly late at night, and vomits very loudly most mornings.

Subject: RE: Abatement notice for humming!
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 18 Jul 11 - 09:26 AM

Well, stop doing it, Richard! *BG*
Back to the humming: kazoo players must unite to defend a man's right to hum.
RtS