Interested in people's views on this one.
I have a friend who has been living next door to incredibly noisy building works for over a year. It's been very disruptive for them - she's been on maternity leave, she works from home and they have young kids who have been unable to play in their garden due to the noise and dust and being overlooked by scaffolding. The building works have also caused some damage to their house which I think the neighbours have been a bit arsy about paying to sort out, and apparently they were very difficult over the party wall agreement and paying for surveyors and that sort of thing (the neighbours not my friend).
The building work is now complete and neighbours' shiny new extension is in place. My friends' kids are also enjoying playing out in their (now non-dusty and usable) garden and I think have been a bit noisy in the paddling pool the past few days - she has three under 8 and they've been having friends round so I think there has been a bit of child noise, although her kids aren't badly-behaved in general.
Neighbours have been in touch complaining about the noise the kids are making. My friend responded with a recording of the noise from their extension works at 8.30am on a Saturday morning (she sent the same to me and honestly the noise is quite horrific), together with the date, and messaged the neighbours "Please don't contact me again about my kids playing out after you put our whole family through this for more than a year including when I had a new baby. If you have any complaints, feel free to contact the council to complain". She's now blocked them and intends to blank them in the street whenever she sees them.