AIBU to give you an update re Church noise?

[alittlequinnie]

I am not sure if you remember my original thread but I asked people to let me know what would be considered reasonable in relation to noise levels of living next door to a Church.

The thread gathered pace and I left it just before we had a meeting with the Council, the Methodist Church members and the Seventh Day Adventist Members.

Just to let you all know that the meeting went ahead on Friday. The Methodist Minister didn't actually manage to get any representatives from the Seventh Day Adventists to the meeting - he said that he had been waiting for a letter from the Council before asking them. However, he sees them every single Saturday and the meeting has been booked for about 6 weeks so I am not sure why he found it so difficult to verbally tell them.

So there was just my DH and I, the Methodist Minister we deal with, the Council lady and one other Minister (higher up) from the Methodist Church.

Basically we all put our findings - which was mostly my DH and I because we are ones moaning.

There was no defence to the noise - just putting facts really. The Methodist Minister we speak with is a bit of a drip and didn't really have any solutions.

The Council however said that they were just here to fact gather and to see if a solution could be found through mediation.

She did mention that when there is a noise nuisance they usually monitor the property making the noise at the border. This means that any noise leakage at the border can be considered a nuisance.

Obviously the noise is leaking over their border, over our border and into our house so we feel cautiously optimistic that they are breaching "something".

The plan is as follows:

• We continue to monitor for another 6 weeks now the meeting has taken place to see if any improvement.

*We give a copy of our findings to the Methodist Minister every Sunday so that he can speak with the Seventh Day Adventists about the issues to see what he can do.

*Somebody from the SDA's to come over to our house and give us name and contact number so we can speak with them directly if there is a particular issue

• Review after 6 weeks.

First Saturday of the 6 weeks was the one just gone. Absolutely no improvement whatsoever - we could hear the lyrics of the hymns they were singing in our bedroom still.

Also we gave the copy of the noise diary to the Minister but nobody from SDA's came over to our house to give us contact details.

Will keep plugging at it but not sure how effective it is to have had the meeting when the SDA's were not there - so frustrating for the Methodist Minister not to manage to do this simple thing!

I'm going to now start to tackle the terrible parking to see if that helps the situation at all. I feel if there are less cars piled on the double yellows, pedestrian crossing, accross my garage and on the zig zag lines there may be less people milling around all together?

Who knows!

I hope the council sorts something. If they don’t just sue. It’s really disappointing that the Methodists aren’t doing anything and the SDAs are refusing to engage.

nana* - read the thread properly.

The OP moved next to a Methdist Church and for some time was quite happy to accept the associated noises of the Sunday services, special services, "church fayres", Mothers' Union meetings etc and the cars parked outside her home that were associated with these.

then the Methodists rented out church space to a Seventh Day Adventist group. They put in amplification systems, hold long, frequent and very noisy services, lasting several hours, well into the night; there is a very large congregation who park dangerously (just because of the numbers) in the road. The services finish and then the congregation piles out - noisily - at 10.00 or so at night. They shout and laugh together in the street for another 30 - 40 minutes or so, and slam cars doors; children, some quite young, run about making aa noise and (I imagine) getting tetchy as young children do when it's past their bedtime.

This isn't a matter of someone moving next to a church and then complaining about ten minutes of bells every Sunday - this is a REAL noise nuisance and the OP has tried everything short of violence to stop it. She has spoken to the SDA minister, the Methodist minister, the council - you name it. Nothing has been done. The Methodists want the money. The SDAs want the church. Neither of these supposedly Christian groups seems to have an ounce of Christian compassion for the OP and her family who can't read, watch TV, sleep or even think in peace because of the racket.

Noise like this makes people ill. It can actually precipitate violence because people just can't bear it.

For what it's worth and before the NIMBY's can bleat about how hard done by they are - there are two churches within spitting distance of where I live. One 30 yards from my house and the other (different denomination) about a hundred and 20 yards away - both ring bells all day, every day, Both have youth groups using the halls, both have weddings, funerals and gatherings. I can hear EVERYTHING from my house - wanna know how many times I've complained? I'll tell you, it's zero. I bought a house by a church so I knew what to expect. And frankly - most people only go to church to celebrate or mourn - I'm not enough of a cunt to complain about that.

Aannnaa not nana*

Don't know what happened to the rest of the name - it disappeared

both ring bells all day, every day, Both have youth groups using the halls, both have weddings, funerals and gatherings.

So absolutely nothing like the OPs situation.

Aannnaa

you still haven't read the first thread, have you?

Ok apologies, read the other post and see you have tried to engage. Re parking I would report each and every episode of bad/illegal parking to the police via 101 unless it’s parking on the zigzags when I would phone 999 as it’s a danger to those using the crossing

I would also contact the SDA head office via the website and advise that dispute meetings the inconsiderate behaviour continues and can they now become involved.

Then if nothing happens I would go to the local press and ask them to come and listen etc, with proof they refuse to meet with you etc. Then the press will contact the SDA and who knows something may happen

That's a good update OP and the 7DA will have done themselves no favours by not turning up to the meeting. Hopefully the monitoring will take place so it includes some of their services rather than just Methodist ones.

Thanks OP. I really think id be seeking legal advice at this point. I don’t know how you haven’t murdered someone! I enjoy the singing of a choir and church bells as much as the next woman but my god....

both ring bells all day, every day

THAT I do NOT believe!

Church bells are rung for a purpose - to summon people to services, to celebrate weddings, to tell of funerals. They are not rung for long - 10/15 minutes at the outside.

If they are proper bells, as opposed to recorded "belling", the bell-ringers themselves wouldn't be able to keep up the pace. And bell-ringers aren't cheap when they provide their services for weddings etc- nobody is going to pay them to ring their chimes ALL DAY!

You are fibbing!

Ask for the next meeting to be on a Saturday at your house. The Methodist minister is more than just a drip - I bet he's not even spoken to the SDAs about it. Did the council talk about noise monitoring equipment?

@alittlequinnie Have you thought about getting a company in to do a proper noise analysis during the services? It might cost a bit but would be a lot of evidence. The church next to my parent's house was sold and a man bought it to turn into a recording studio - he had to do a full sound analysis including a man standing in my parent's garden with a decimeter while he played his instruments in order for the council to approve change of use. As for the parking, I wish you luck with that - service times round churches always seem to be a nightmare and nothing gets done.

gosh i read the original thread and I was hoping for a better outcome.

Declare yourselves satanists, rent some heavy duty speakers, dial them up to 11 and blast out Satanist music? (no idea what that would be - death core metal or something)

Agree the council should be tackling the noise AND the parking. Can't you invite them over for the day while the noise is going on?

Ahhh, this again. I have zero sympathy for you, you moved next to a church and are surprised that there is now singing and noise? So what if it is more than when you first moved in, it isn't unreasonable to expect noise to come from the church. YABVVVU

I can completely understand how you're feeling OP.

We have different in that we have new neighbours who are horrendously noisy. Weekends involve loud music blaring out from their new patio which faces our house; cars coming in and out at all hours and him standing on his drive like Dom Joly on his mobile. It's a "party" house full of 50 year olds who think they are the Inbetweeners. I'd laugh if it wasn't so tragic.

We've lived in our house for 22 years and it's getting us down so much that we've booked an estate agent yesterday to put it on the market. It's our home, our sanctuary and somewhere we imagined growing old in and raising our grandchildren in. It's literally breaking our hearts.

People should try actually living with noise nuisance - it's a truly awful experience and one you have absolutely no control over.

I really hope you get something sorted OP but if you don't I'd honestly say move for the sake of your sanity

Surely they will ban amplified music, there are no amplified calls to prayer (Muslim) in the U.K. as far as I know. In the ME it is deafening, in fact I think some church bells have been banned.
And parking all over doubleyellow lines , is it allowed on a Sunday?

I'm sorry you have had only slow progress OP and hope further evidence gathering is fruitful.

It sounds like hell to live with.

Isnt there some sort of hierarchy in the Methodist church? Someone you can complain to higher up?

Glad you're making progress - 7DA really aren't helping themselves are they? Fortunately their failure to engage is helping you.

slippery that made me laugh. Know what you mean and agree with you but I had immediate vision of their ‘god’ ‘above’ as their ‘higher up’ surely?!

Doesn’t seem unreasonable to me and it’s a real shame the right people weren’t there.

I’m wondering something though. If the level of decibels is 56, inside your house, there’s a good chance they are breaching acceptable levels inside the church. H&S says at 80 decibels the law says you must provide guidance and training for people do at 85 you must provide protection. Has any measurement been done in there? That might be a kind of roundabout way to deal with some of the issue.

Cars idling is illegal, did you get the police involved there? Similarly if they are blocking crossings and pavements or causing nuisance at 5am, that should be dealt with. Apologies if that was raised in the other thread, I haven’t had the time to read it all yet. I’m just wondering if repeated complaints to the police had made a difference if they happened.

I grew up near a church and love the sound of church bells

I grew up in the Country and love the smell of muck spreading. But both of these things are entirely irrelevant to the OP’s post.

I read your original post OP, what painfully slow progress.

I lived next to an Abbey @Aannnaa, that's a lot of services and lots of bell ringing practice. Their bells marked time every 15 mins 24 hours a day, this was fine. After a while you barely notice it. The OPs noise complaint is completely different, they have a very legitimate cause for complaint.

Graveyards are usually attached to churches though so how exactly will this snide comment help the op sunflowers?