Many of us can work quite happily in a noisy environment, yet still be driven bananas when a particular sound — be it a chronic sniff or the whistling of a limited selection from Sinatra’s greatest hits — is added to the general hubbub.
Most offenders will, of course, be aware (if only after the third otherwise inexplicable incarceration in the toilet) that it is not a question of noise levels. Decibels hardly come into it.
Life being like that, it was perhaps surprising that the accused in Godfrey v Conwy County Borough Council [2000] EGCS 131 sought to persuade the Divisional Court that his conviction for committing a statutory nuisance could not stand because the noise coming from his music studio was no greater than that emanating from agricultural machinery being used in the area.
At further risk of incarceration, one could say that his plea fell on deaf ears.
Many of us can work quite happily in a noisy environment, yet still be driven bananas when a particular sound — be it a chronic sniff or the whistling of a limited selection from Sinatra’s greatest hits — is added to the general hubbub.
Most offenders will, of course, be aware (if only after the third otherwise inexplicable incarceration in the toilet) that it is not a question of noise levels. Decibels hardly come into it.
Life being like that, it was perhaps surprising that the accused in Godfrey v Conwy County Borough Council [2000] EGCS 131 sought to persuade the Divisional Court that his conviction for committing a statutory nuisance could not stand because the noise coming from his music studio was no greater than that emanating from agricultural machinery being used in the area.
At further risk of incarceration, one could say that his plea fell on deaf ears.
