A man who lives on the top floor of a block of flats is driving neighbours far and wide to distraction by blaring music from his balcony and sometimes even dropping things to smash on the ground below.
For the last couple of months an eclectic range of music including opera and dance can be heard coming from the flat at the top of Richmond Heights in John Street.
Although it spans many musical genres, the one thing all the tracks have in common is that they’re played at ear-splitting volume.
More worryingly, he has also reportedly thrown objects from his balcony and police have attended on more than one occasion.
Neighbours have been asking Brighton and Hove City Council to take action and some have now been asked to keep a noise diary.
Curtis Turner, who lives on John Street opposite Richmond Heights, said the music has been blasting out of the flat for at least the last seven months.
And he said last week, he heard glass smashing in the early hours of the morning followed by a commotion and later saw glass picture frames strewn on the ground outside the flats.
He said: “I’ve been furloughed since the beginning of lockdown and it’s been on and off since then.
“We have rung the noise complaint people and they don’t seem to do anything about it and he just carries on doing his thing.
“He just turns on disco lights and has his own rave parties all day and every night.
“He’ll watch something like Lord of the Rings and have it blaring so everyone can hear every word all down the road.
“Once he started playing that Bloodhound Gang song at 4am in the morning, waking the whole street up. We rang the police, and they could hear it down the phone, but they said said couldn’t come out.
“They only time they come out is when he’s throwing stuff off his balcony. I think there’s been a couple of near misses.
“I think he needs a lot of help. We’re due to move soon, but I feel sorry for all the other residents and I hope something does happen.”
Annie Heath, who lives halfway up the hill in Hanover, said: “It’s been so loud I’ve been able to use the Shazam app on my phone to identify the songs from almost 200m away.
“No-one has the right to play anything that loud as late as he does.
“It’s just irritating and inconsiderate this far away- but next to it must be horrendous.”
A council spokesperson said: “We have had complaints about noise nuisance at an address in Richmond Heights and are investigating them.
“As a landlord the council take complaints of noise nuisance seriously. We understand how difficult this can be for other residents, especially for those living in blocks of flats, at a time when people may be spending more time at home than they normally would due to lockdown restrictions.
“When noise nuisance is reported coming from a council-owned residential building, our housing and environmental health teams work together to investigate.
“The leaseholder or tenant of the property will be reminded that they are in breach of their leasehold or tenancy agreement, and that if the noise persists the council can take enforcement action.”
*Yesterday, a 35-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of affray, criminal damage and causing actual bodily harm following an incident at the block. He has since been released on conditional police bail.
“When noise nuisance is reported coming from a council-owned residential building, our housing and environmental health teams work together to investigate”.
But it has been at least seven monhs of Hell for the neighbours and they still haven’t dealt with it. Why wasn’t the man evicted long ago?
This one person is ruining the peace and mental well being in a large, densely populated area. There have been objects thrown towards my flat from that top floor balcony at Richmond Heights. Nobody can enjoy being out on their balconies or gardens while music is played at that level.
The council is failing this community. If you allow this type of anti social behaviour for so long, the message is that we are a haven for bad behaviour. It extends the boundary of what is permissable and the previous standards of a considerate neighbourhood are trashed.
Let’s state a fact.
We all know that if this had been going on in Hove,or a posh bit of Brighton, the Council would have ensured they assertively dealt with the problems and protected the residents.