Don’t be surprised to hear that East London is one of noisiest places to live in Britain, with town hall officials in one borough receiving an ear bashing from 15,000 households about noisy neighbours in just 18 months.

East London Advertiser: Dreaded sight for any neighbour when one of these sound blasters turns up next door. Picture: steviep187Dreaded sight for any neighbour when one of these sound blasters turns up next door. Picture: steviep187 (Image: steviep187)

Tower Hamlets is listed fourth noisiest spot in the country, with many complaints about loud music.

Only Kensington, Belfast and Haringey in north London had more complaints between January last year and this August, Freedom of Information requests have shown.

You would need to move out to the Scilly Isles or Outer Hebrides to catch a really good night’s kip where there are the fewest number of complaints anywhere in the UK, according to a survey by Anglian Homes.

The survey of 253 local authorities found the worst spot for disturbed nights was the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea with 35,000 complaints, a third being about loud music, followed by building work, buskers, air conditioning, parties and even loud conversations and footsteps!

Two out of every three complaints to Tower Hamlets Council are about noise, the East London Advertiser has learned. The authority’s complaints switchboard operates 8pm to 3.30am on 020-7364 5007.

Noisy neighbours are nothing new in the East End, it seems. Anti-social neighbours got a ‘blast’ from the town hall 10 years ago during its ‘noise action’ week in the summer of 2007, after being flooded with complaints, with threats to confiscate stereos and TVs.

The council’s environmental health technical officer at the time, Gemma Bonnet, told the Advertiser back then: “Loud stereos and parties make up most complaints to us. We have powers to confiscate equipment and people could face fines if they continue to cause excess noise.”

The festive season this year could raise the stakes with celebrations into the New Year. But then, it is “the season of goodwill” and officials are hoping neighbours can get along without calling in the council ‘sound’ squad.