Car alarm continuous noise

On Devonshire Road, near the junction with Woodcombe Crescent a car alarm has been on for four hours.

Lewisham Environmental ‘Service’ does not operate outside of office hours.

Do you know if it is something the police can stop or is it only the council who will handle this sort of issue? I had hoped that it would have stopped by now!

It’s a typical legislative mess of the kind the UK specialises in:

On the one hand

“Councils are responsible for looking into complaints about noise …”

on the other hand

“Councils can decide what level of service they provide to deal with noise complaints, for example, whether to have officers on call at night.”

I wouldn’t say the whole of the U.K. is like this. From first hand experience I can tell you that council behaviour/priorities/accountability varies hugely across the country. Move just 25 miles south and things are very different

I moved to Lewisham in 2001, the council was head and shoulders above Southwark and Harrow where I had previously lived. Sadly the standards slipped over time. Planning lost staff, Envirocall never answered the phone and nothing seemed to work anymore. I hate to think what it is like now.

Unfortunately some modern cars seem to be wired really weirdly. It might be the owner isn’t aware of the issue or can’t do anything about it and unlike house alarms they don’t switch off after 20mins.

My friend was mortified when at 10 am on New Year’s Day her car alarm went off. Her less than six month old battery had died and that set off the car alarm, which apparently has its own battery. But because the main battery had failed her key wouldn’t work and she couldn’t do anything till the AA arrived at 5pm. The AA man said it’s just the way these cars are designed and happens a lot.If she’d been away, it would have just kept on and on and on.

Years and years ago in another life, we had a burglar alarm on our house. We had just moved into a new house. Anyway, we went away on holiday for two weeks and during our time away, the alarm was tripped by something or other and no one could get in touch with us or work out what to do. We came back to a very cool reception and found that our next door neighbour had resorted to going up a ladder and fastening various wet towels around the bell to damp it down. It had been going on for days and days. I think this was one of the most embarrassing things that I have ever done. Truly mortifying. I went door to door apologising up and down the street. For years I would inwardly cringe whenever I thought about it. I think we disconnected it from then on.

Reminds me of when my motion sensor inside my old house triggered my house alarm to go off whilst I was out. Not sure how many hours it had been going off for but came home to a neighbour checking the perimeter of our house for any intruders. I thanked them and went inside my house to figure out what triggered the alarm… my lack of housework apparently. A cobweb had blown in front of the sensor!

When I was young our neighbours went on holiday and their alarm went off on day 1. It was an external bell that rang constantly for about 3 days before a man from the council turned up with a ladder, climbed up and hit the bell box with a brick until it was ‘disconnected’.

The neighbours got back from holiday to find their alarm broken AND a bill from the guy that had silenced it. They weren’t best pleased to say the least.

I believe all burglar alarms should be capable of being silenced within 20 minutes these days, either automatically or by a key holder. I’m not sure if that applies to car alarms though.

Yes things are very different. I think it is a legislative mess if the state allows councils discretion to ignore their responsibilities.

A comparison with some nearby Boroughs shows that they ALL offer a better service.

Southwark offers a Noise Rapid Response most days between 07.00 - 02.30, and continuously between 07.00 Friday until 02.30 Tuesday

Lambeth Response Service out of office hours Thursday 20.00 - 04.00; Fri and Sat 09.00 - 05.00

Bromley has a 24 hour response line

Islington has an out of hours report line.

Tower Hamlets out of hours Thurs - Sun 20.00 - 03.30.