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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

WIBU to write to the headteacher about this?

10 replies

CharminglyOdd · 18/04/2012 11:25

I don't think IABU per se, but there is a substantial chance I'll come across as a catsbummouth person, which is not what I want.

We live next door to a school, which has an attached RC church. I enjoy living next to schools (grew up next to one). There's a problem with the alarm and periodically it goes off. Recently it's been once a fortnight for a few hours before it suddenly stops. There was an instance late last year where it started going off on Friday evening and carried on all weekend.

If we have the TV on (loud) it blurs into the background but if we're working (I study, DP is self-employed) it is a total pain. The weekend where it was constantly ringing I was trying to study for my exams and it was a big distraction. DP also likes to sleep with the window open (he doesn't sleep well without it, which I accept may be psychological) and we couldn't do that either. I called the school (no surprise, no answer), called the local police station (figuring it was a burglar alarm so they could at least see if they could switch it off/someone had broken in), called the County Council (they had no emergency number listed and no keyholder listed Hmm) and, having watched on Sunday morning and Saturday evening as churchgoers came and went without the alarm being switched off, I tried calling the church secretary to see if someone had a key. No answer and no one called me back.

I also work for a school and both my parents were governors at a church school - at their school (and mine) there's a caretaker and, in the church setting, someone in the church has a key to the school in addition to the caretaker.

The AIBU bit: WIBU to write to the headteacher and ask for contact details so I can call someone to get it switched off when it inevitably happens again? Or will I come across as a lunatic? I just feel like it won't get fixed until I say something.

OP posts:
shushpenfold · 18/04/2012 11:26

Absolutely not unreasonable...helpful I'd have said.

YonWhaleFish · 18/04/2012 11:27

YANBU!

laughlovelife · 18/04/2012 11:28

yanbu.

lazylula · 18/04/2012 11:28

YANBU

BarbarianMum · 18/04/2012 11:28

No, YANBU at all. I used to live close to a restaurant that constantly had this problem and the key holder was never contactable.

Have the police/council got back to you about it?

bowerbird · 18/04/2012 11:29

YANBU!!! I would have killed someone by now. You are a remarkable patient and reasonable person.

confusedpixie · 18/04/2012 11:30

Not unreasonable at all imo. Maybe you could comment on the fact that the council has no emergency contact or keyholder details listed as well as surely that would be to their benefit in other situations too?

Is there anybody in the church you could speak too about it when it does happen or are they 'separate' from one another in that sense?

CharminglyOdd · 18/04/2012 11:37

So glad to hear IANBU! I was so worried it would come across as complaining/unreasonableness when I'm not involved with either the church or school.

The Council said there was no one listed from the school and they 'might' have subcontracted out to a firm that takes a general interest in looking after schools when they're shut and they would contact that company and see if they were in charge of the school. That was Saturday and the alarm kept ringing so I imagine they weren't (and it's the first I've ever heard of school keys being subcontracted out Hmm). The police said there was nothing they could do, which made me quite cross TBH as, where I used to live, the police and schools were on first name terms with each other and would not have hesitated to pop by/call someone.

The church and school seem quite interconnected - lots of children at services and they all line up and march in once or twice a week in the morning.

bowerbird I did feel a bit homicidal at the end of the weekend. I stopped ringing around trying to fix it after Sunday morning because I couldn't trust myself to be polite on the phone.

OP posts:
DeWe · 18/04/2012 11:50

I think under noise laws they're not allowed an alarm that goes off for more than 20 minutes continuously. You could phone enviromental health and ask their advice.

peugotgringo · 18/04/2012 11:58

Hi Charmingley

I'm pretty sure there will be a key holder and that they will live quite close.

My suggestion next time would be to ring not the police but the fire service.

Beleive me, when they get a call from them to produce a key holder or the doors/windows will be smashed in they'll be round in quick sticks to sort it out!

(quick sticks? jaysus I have finally turned into my mum!)

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