Is my neighbour BU about noise

[immacyoolat]

We live in a cul de sac of bungalows mostly with older people. A lot of the cul de sacs on the estate are also bungalows and the main road through is bigger often detached family homes with a few bungalows. The whole estate is generally quiet as no real through traffic.

Over last few months we have had a couple of kids use the cul de sac to play in and they roller skate or cycle up and down. Only really at weekends and maybe for a few hours at most. It's been half term here last week and they have been here every day.

The kids are not related to anyone on the cul de sac but they have been making normal children noise (I'd say they are early teens). Today elderly neighbour has been out shouting at them for making lots of noise and telling them they shouldn't be here if they don't live here. I could hear as had windows open. By time I got outside to see what was going on they had gone away.

I spoke to neighbour who said he has been speaking to some other neighbours and they are fed up of the noise from these children and they should go to the park. They don't live on the close so shouldn't be playing here and the reason old people move places like this is because of the peace and quiet (his words).

I think my neighbour is BU as they aren't here all the time and he didn't need to shout at them to make his point.

What do you think, is he BU? I'm asking because no doubt I'll get asked about it at some point.

*YANBU

There's a park on the new build estate beside us, as well as a large area of grassland further around the estate.

When DS(13) and his friends go on the park to play the parents of smaller children complain about "bigger kids" spoiling things for little ones. When they go on the area of grassland and play football the people in the houses across the road complain (because like your neighbours they bought their houses away from the park expecting "quiet") and tell them to go play on the park. If they ride around on their bikes people complain they're "causing a nuisance".

Teenagers really can't win and I swear people would only be happy with them locked in their houses!*

And then people go on about how teenagers spend to much time inside on screens and need to get out more! (and then start going on about 'back in my day' ) Honestly, teenagers can't do right for doing wrong.

Your neighbour is totally unreasonable to have shouted at them. Yes it may be a little annoying but it's a public road. They have every right to be there. If he wants total peace and silence they need to live somewhere with lots of land and no neighbours. If you want to live somewhere with other people nearby and community there's always a risk of noise, these are the trade offs we make when choosing somewhere to live. People do annoying things that are perfectly within their rights everyday, doesn't give anyone a right to shout at them. And in this case there's a power imbalance with the neighbour using his age to intimidate them. Totally Unreasonable.