A Hove nursery has been taken to court by its next door neighbour because she says the children playing outside make too much noise.
Jayne Tibbott, who lives in New Church Road, is seeking a noise abatement order for Hove Village Nursery.
According to court records, she maintains there is “excessive noise from children playing outside the nursery for long periods of time.”
The nursery denies the claim.
This week, Mrs Tibbott was at Brighton Magistrates Court for preliminary legal arguments ahead of the main hearing on 10 July.
Speaking outside court on Monday, she said the noise issues had been “devastating” for her.
The nursery’s managing director Kathryn Hyatt declined to comment.
Mrs Tibbott, who manages her husband Barry Tibbott’s Brunswick Court Dental Practice and is also a talking therapist, has been living in the £1million detached house since February 2005.
The nursery was then a private GP clinic, the Sussex Medical Centre, having previously been a rest home.
But in 2015, Hove Village Nursery took over and the noise problems began.
According to its latest Ofsted report from April this year, the children use the outdoor area each day, as well as enjoying frequent visits to a neighbouring park and regularly visiting the beach.
It currently has 128 spaces for children aged 0-5, and at the time of inspection it had 191 children on its roll.
The nursery is also opening a branch at Hove Library, which was “saved” from moving to a modern building a couple of years ago, with the trade off that some of its rooms will be leased out to private companies to cover the upkeep of the old Victorian building.
Library campaigners have already expressed concern about the possible noise from the children.
The nursery’s website says it has created a learning garden from previously disused space at the back of the library, which it has invested tens of thousands of pounds in.
It says: “Children attending our Hove Library setting will not only benefit from the wonderful facilities, but will also enjoy joining with the children at our other nursery setting just along the road.”
The nursery is expected to call some of its staff as witnesses, as well as a representative of the city council’s noise enforcement team.
Mrs Tibbott is also calling witnesses.
“But in 2015, Hove Village Nursery took over and the noise problems began”
Alleged “noise problems” surely?
Pity the Vallance Rd residents whose gardens abutt the narrow space behind the Grade 2 Listed “old Victorian building” and users of the Carnegie-endowed library architecture treasure when Village Nurseries sets the squealies loose in that space to ‘play’. Does the nursery believe in teaching volume control? Or that they should consider the needs of others?
I really don’t pity anyone who lives on Vallance Road.
And I most definitely don’t pity users of the library… thanks to austerity measures, without the likes of the new cafe and the proposed nursery, the ‘Carnegie-endowed library’ would likely have to close.
I do however pity you and your bitter outlook.
“There is little success where there is little laughter.” (Andrew Carnegie.)
It must be a living Hell, having to listen to children playing. How awful for the poor woman.
There is playing with a few voices audible & then there is loud shouty noise and screaming over quite a long time from quite a large group of children. Daily. Reporting of the court case hopefully clarifies what this resident experiences & what is fair.
I do think children need to be taught consideration for others, don’t you? And Ihopet this nursery business understands that it includes behaviour involving noise.
So is she saying that with a park and a children’s playground right behind her property that there was no noise from children playing before and how sure can she be that all of the noise is comming from the nursery given that the playground is so close.
My oldest son,5 years old now, and my youngest,2, they both went to nursery there. I would go a pick them up from the garden on many occasions, but never, i had to experience a loud noise, screaming, or shouting. Children would be playing in the garden, kindly and supervised at all time,and the noice was never considerably louder than what was coming from the park next door. Please do not forget, that the park is used from children over 1 year old, from sport clubs that run almost o n a daily basis, and from schools that do their sport’s days there. Therefore, before blaming the under 5 years old that would go to the garden to entairtain themselves, look at the problem that has got its roots spread deeply in the park next door.
I now live in Stockholm on the 2nd floor, on the ground floor there is a nursery, there are 5 other nurseries in the area where the kids play within hearing distance. I must agree hearing the laughter of children playing and sometimes the crying is a nightmare. No I’m only joking, I love it, they are the adults of tomorrow, let them play, let them enjoy themselves. You must be one cranky old spitefull woman, do you not remember you may have been a child once, maybe not.