The bells of a historic town hall have been limited after a noise complaint from a resident about their 15-minute increments.
Birkenhead Town Halls’ bells now only chime once an hour after it was discovered the bells were a ‘statutory noise nuisance’.
But residents have been left upset over the change, with heritage campaigner Philip Barton telling the BBC that many in the town ‘live their lives’ by the sound of the frequent chimes.
The council began their investigation after receiving a complaint from a nearby resident. An officer measured the noise of the chimes and found they were classified as a nuisance.
It’s thought to be the first complaint over the clock tower chimes in the building’s 137 year history, Mr Barton said.
The council made a ‘compromise’ and halted the 15 minute chimes for a more reasonable once-hourly chime.
But the loss of the clock’s constant noise is a ‘great shame’, Mr Barton said.
‘We’ve all got clocks and watches and phones to tell the time, but the chimes are a little bit more than that,’ he said.
A similar incident happened a year ago, prompting the bell of a church which had chimed for more than 200 years to be silenced after a noise complaint.
One angry resident in Beith, Scotland, said the bell of the parish church was interrupting their sleep, and now the 24-hour ringing has been halted.
North Ayrshire Council asked the Church of Scotland to silence the church bell after receiving a noise complaint.
A spokesman for the Church of Scotland said: ‘When a local resident informed the Kirk Session that the hourly chime of the clock tower bell was disturbing them during the wee small hours, they committed to try and find a compromise solution.
‘After the local resident lodged an official complaint with Environmental Health, one of its officials wrote to the Kirk Session to ask it to consider “not operating the church bells between 23:00 and 07:00 to be more considerate to nearby residential properties”.
‘Church members are empathetic to the effects of insomnia on individuals and recognise that intermittent, low frequency noise can be disturbing for some.
‘Embracing the Bible teaching ‘love thy neighbour as thyself’, the Kirk Session took Environmental Health’s suggestion on board and the clock bell has not sounded between 11pm and 7am since 11 October.
‘The bell continues to chime on the hour between 8am and 10pm, seven days a week.’
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