The owner of a gym has been ordered to make sure its neighbours can’t hear any noise coming from it.
Fit Box in Church Road, Hove, has been served a enforcement notice requiring it to put in soundproofing by the end of the month.
Planning permission for the basement gym granted in 2011 – years before Fit Box moved in – included a condition that “noise from operations conducted within the premises shall not be audible from surrounding residential premises at any time.”
Owner Jason Frost said the gym has been hit with noise complaints in the past – but he’s not aware of where the current problems are.
He said: “Everything has been run the same for the last four years.
“You can get a complaint and then nothing for years and then you get a neighbour upstairs who’s just moved in over a commercial property and they then raise it to the council and the council demand you do something.
“If you want to live in complete silence, don’t live over a commercial property.
“I always work with the neighbours to rectify any problems but at the same time it’s never going to be silent.
“I live next door to a pub which creates noise, but I have to accept that.
“It used to be a nightclub open until the early hours with people smoking outside. That’s one of the reasons we took it on.
“Unfortunately someone can move in two flats upstairs and want to case a problem.
“The council don’t tell us who’s making the complaints so we don’t know which way the noise is going to cause a problem.
“My gym’s opposite the big Tesco at Hove and there’s lorries reversing down there at 5am. But because we are a local small business, we are easier to target.
“We have had a few noise complaints – two or three in the course of four years and then it goes away and then it will come back again.
“We help hundreds of people across the city get fit and active.
“I have been in the flats and the businesses and you can hear it, but it’s not that loud.”
The gym’s classes start at 6am in the morning until 10am, then it’s empty until 5pm, when classes start again until 7pm.
Councillor Liz Loughran, chair of the planning committee at Brighton & Hove City Council, said: “We are currently investigating a complaint made in relation to this premises and, as such, are not able to comment in detail about an on-going investigation.
“We can, however, confirm a breach of planning condition notice was issued on 1 April, requiring the business to take steps to ensure no noise generated from the gym is audible within neighbouring properties, as per conditions of its original planning permission.”
However much I’d highly dispise hearing thumping music/crashing of weights etc. at 6 in the morning or at 5 when I’ve come home to relax, I highly empathise with the gym owner and agree with him.
On what Planet do you have to live on to go and live in a flat (which is your choice by the way and no one forced you with a gun to your head) in a commercial street and then moan and complain about it to the council like some sort of loser.
I lived on London Road myself, the terrace of a pub was close to my bedroom window and I lived above a corner
……shop where on the first morning, I was awoken by the voice a lovely woman from Brighton’s wonderfully strong powerful hard working and diverse West African Community chatting away loudly on the phone below my room. Wanna know what I did? I got on with it unlike some of these crybabies with limp wrists who will (allegedly) call the police on someone for calling them big fat doodoo brain. Not The Gym’s fault that you can’t get a woman to like you or to see beyond your boring, weak and brittle character (allegedly).
Oh no that’s terrible, your neighbour is really loud? “Yes he is *waaaahhh waaahhh*”. Where is this neighbour? “On a commercial street with loads of businesses on and a pub is there too :(“. Oh no, so obviously these businesses must’ve cropped up after you moved in then? “No, they were there before I moved in” Right ….. So what YOU mean to tell ME, is that you moved in there knowing full well that it was going to be loud? “Yes” Okay….. And you chose to move there knowing this? “Yes”. Right, how about you shut your Ahh up you (alleged) sad excuse and complete and utter tool.
Well done for the Gym Owner for creating a business that provides the council and Govt with revenue and keeping Brighton and Hove’s community healthy and engaged with fitness. To the Council, please be less of a liability and to the (alleged) loser neighbours, go and get laid.
“Gym ordered to stop the neighbours hearing any noise”
From reading your headline, it implies that the gym owner can provide ear protection to the tenants to stop them hearing any noise.
Moving into a flat above commercial real estate and knowing there’s a gym below and expecting not to hear any noise is simply idiotic, move out and get a life or maybe even better join the gym and live a healthier life!
Brighton council would be far more useful fixing potholes than dealing with this nonsense!
Timing is everything, maybe 6am grunting is not a wake up call for everyone, plus the after 6pm, placement of commercial should considered differently if amongst housing that’s why most gymns occupy commercial spaces, no neighbours to annoy.
It is easier to comply with the conditions Imposed in regard to neighbours not hearing any noise emanating from a premises. Indeed and in this instance planning permission was granted on that very basis.