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legal advice please


ZeromiserY

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we just got booted out of our practice space at the quay (shore porters lock ups).

environmental health burst in through the door saying we'd gotten complaints about noise levels.

they told us the people who live across the road ( a dual carriage way i might add) had complained several times about the noise. keep in mind this was 2:30 pm and we didnt even have our bassist.

told us 'stop now or we'll take legal action'.

anyone know the legal decibel level for daytime ? as i said, just after 2pm we got stopped.

also, what time does it change to lesser levels?

:down:

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we just got booted out of our practice space at the quay (shore porters lock ups).

environmental health burst in through the door saying we'd gotten complaints about noise levels.

they told us the people who live across the road ( a dual carriage way i might add) had complained several times about the noise. keep in mind this was 2:30 pm and we didnt even have our bassist.

told us 'stop now or we'll take legal action'.

anyone know the legal decibel level for daytime ? as i said' date=' just after 2pm we got stopped.

also, what time does it change to lesser levels?

:down:[/quote']

did they say the complaints had been made during the day or were they at different times?

To be honest let them take legal action, you dont own the shore porters place i assume, so they wouldnt take legal action against you, rather the people that own the building, thats if they actually do it. Did you get to see their badges when you spoke to them?

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no badges, no decibel reading (that we were told of) and on the whole they were (*camp voice) just plain rude.

is there any way we can contest it? i mean as in say ' eh, no bam....its nae at lood' .

i phoned the environmental health office of the council last night to see if they took a reading but it was closed and now i cant get through.

thanks for the tips btw

edit : and it was different times. we play during the day when traffic there is heavy.

the police were called on saturday night about another band. thats the other thing, theres something like 7 bands play there.

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They didn't show ID and didn't give you any bits of paper with "Noise Abatement Order" or similar title.

Doesn't sound like EH to me.

Also bursting in without being invited or having a court order is almost certainly outwith their powers.

If these guys were EH, which I have serious doubts about, I'm sure there bosses would love to know about them entering private property uninvited and not showing ID or the correct paperwork.

If it was EH, they can confiscate your equipment if you don't cease though. Best to get a hold of them and clarify the situation first.

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They didn't show ID and didn't give you any bits of paper with "Noise Abatement Order" or similar title.

Doesn't sound like EH to me.

Also bursting in without being invited or having a court order is almost certainly outwith their powers.

If these guys were EH' date=' which I have serious doubts about, I'm sure there bosses would love to know about them entering private property uninvited and not showing ID or the correct paperwork.

If it was EH, they can confiscate your equipment if you don't cease though. Best to get a hold of them and clarify the situation first.[/quote']

thats exactly what i needed to know.

*picks up the phone

will let you know when i can get through and get some kind of response.

being the council, the office was closed bang on 5 o'clock yesterday.

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They didn't show ID and didn't give you any bits of paper with "Noise Abatement Order" or similar title.

Doesn't sound like EH to me.

Also bursting in without being invited or having a court order is almost certainly outwith their powers.

If these guys were EH' date=' which I have serious doubts about, I'm sure there bosses would love to know about them entering private property uninvited and not showing ID or the correct paperwork.

If it was EH, they can confiscate your equipment if you don't cease though. Best to get a hold of them and clarify the situation first.[/quote']

exactly when we had a problem they wouldnt even come near the place without arranging it with us first, and also they took readings before anything further was said to us. Also being the council they would write to you first before this happened, as we found out to our annoyance the council will not do anything unless they write to you about it. Also i highly doubt that the noise would be passing over a dual carrage way unless it is ridiculously loud, at the Lok Up we had residential buildings right next door and appart from a few isolated incidents we were fine noise wise.

However having said all that, if they are the real deal i would watch out, these cunts are not plesant to deal with most of the time, pm me if you want any more info that i think could help but i dont want to post up.

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hey dude' date=' we practice there too, we're expecting a booting-out tonight too.

is this the end of the lockup as we know it?[/quote']

erm, my drum kit is outta there, (the red kit that most of the bands used).

so if you were one of the bands which used it your going to need to use another kit. there is only that blue one left in there and im not sure who's it is.

also. they said they would take legal action if we didnt stop there and then and it went for the other bands as well. i would have posted up on the lock up forum but dont have a link to it.

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Just back from cleaning up ure mess, cheers guys..

and as it stands we're fucked, they've issued a Noise Abatement Order which means the next time there is a complaint we lose our lease, so we've had to end it, last band practise 2nite and Im afraid thats it, we cant even contest it in anyway..I stayed off uni to do as much phone calling as I could but EH have the power to do all this through their own legislation. Im meeting the head of EH next week but thats just so I can speak to them face to face..

We're now on the look for empty lockups etc. as we have got everything we need (equip wise) to start another one..

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Just back from cleaning up ure mess' date=' cheers guys..

and as it stands we're fucked, they've issued a Noise Abatement Order which means the next time there is a complaint we lose our lease, so we've had to end it, last band practise 2nite and Im afraid thats it, we cant even contest it in anyway..I stayed off uni to do as much phone calling as I could but EH have the power to do all this through their own legislation. Im meeting the head of EH next week but thats just so I can speak to them face to face..

We're now on the look for empty lockups etc. as we have got everything we need (equip wise) to start another one..[/quote']

Can we band metal bands from this one? I think they might be too angry to practice. They all need a nice sick-up and a lie down.

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Just back from cleaning up ure mess' date=' cheers guys..

and as it stands we're fucked, they've issued a Noise Abatement Order which means the next time there is a complaint we lose our lease, so we've had to end it, last band practise 2nite and Im afraid thats it, we cant even contest it in anyway..I stayed off uni to do as much phone calling as I could but EH have the power to do all this through their own legislation. Im meeting the head of EH next week but thats just so I can speak to them face to face..

We're now on the look for empty lockups etc. as we have got everything we need (equip wise) to start another one..[/quote']

Hey, i notice Zeromisery mentioned before that he tried to find out if they took a reading but couldn't get hold of them or something. Did you find out if they actually did? If so the noise level will have been recorded in a register which is open to public inspection. Find out if the noise recorded actually exceeded the advisory level because decisions have been made in the English courts (London Borough of Lewisham v Fenner 1995) that as long as the noise falls within the advisory standards then, despite any well founded complaints, the action was not well founded. This was in England but the same might hold true in Scotland. If so they can't take action purely because of complaints, you need to have exceeded the advisory noise level. You should definitely find out if they recorded a noise level and what it was. On the other hand it might be easier for you to just move to another lock up.

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if its where i think it is i think the building across the road (not the duel carriage way road, the one as you come out of the doors of the lock ups) from those lock ups has people living in it so could of been them that complained. we practise in one of the lock ups on that street and were told to keep it down by the guy that leases it if we are practising late at night.

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Hey' date=' i notice Zeromisery mentioned before that he tried to find out if they took a reading but couldn't get hold of them or something. Did you find out if they actually did? If so the noise level will have been recorded in a register which is open to public inspection. Find out if the noise recorded actually exceeded the advisory level because decisions have been made in the English courts ([i']London Borough of Lewisham v Fenner 1995) that as long as the noise falls within the advisory standards then, despite any well founded complaints, the action was not well founded. This was in England but the same might hold true in Scotland. If so they can't take action purely because of complaints, you need to have exceeded the advisory noise level. You should definitely find out if they recorded a noise level and what it was. On the other hand it might be easier for you to just move to another lock up.

They havent recorded a sound level but say theyve been in the residents homes that are complaining an beleive it to be over the level of acceptance.. they said they dont deal with readings either, its upto their proffesional opinion.

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yeh that def sounds dogy, if they dont take a reading they cannot enforce what they are saying by law, again we had to deal with this and before they could take anything further they had to do tests when bands were playing during the day and during the evening, with us during the day the traffic going past on the dual carrage way was enough to drown out the sound of any band practising so i cannot see why for any reason it would be different for you guys. Dont let them push you around, ask them to come and take readings to back up the complaints or legaly speaking they cant throw you out or take any legal action against you.

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thats us had our final practice and removed 99% of our gear (except our guitarists stuff, we're taking it to RNB tomorrow for a service anyway so it saves a journey by leaving it in the lockup. it'll be shifted tomorrow anyways!)

its been a great time in that little cave, had a lot of character.

anyone willing to give a good band (or 6) a home?

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It's not about being funny' date=' it's about burping, then turning over, then nap time...[/quote']

evidently not about being funny.

"theres TP on your hands too kyle"

besides, it wasnt us that tp'd the joint. it was the environmental health officers.

they barged in, drank all our booze, stole all our instruments and ransacked the place.

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