Birds Nest licence extension

The news that the Birds Nest pub has applied for a late-hours music extension was raised at last night's residents' and tenants' association meeting.  Noise and other forms of disturbance have in the past affected Crossfields residents, particularly Frankham House residents.  The fact that each weekend seems to bring a new layer of broken glass to the Ha'penny Hatch may also be due to carousers returning to Greenwich from the Birds Nest but, to be honest, I've never witnessed this ever-popular form of late-night sport being played.

Anyhow, here are the details of the licence application, followed by how residents may lodge objections.

 The Birds Nest has applied for an extension as follows:

Thursday from 23:00 to midnight
Friday & Saturday from 01:00 to 02:00
And to have live music Thursday & Friday 20:00-midnight, Saturday 14;00-midnight and Sunday 14:00-22:30.

Representations have to be made before 6 August to Laurence House or to licensing@lewisham.gov.uk and must be related to one or more of these licensing considerations:

Prevention of Public Nuisance
Protection of children from harm
Public Safety
Prevention of Crime and Disorder

Any representations made become a matter for public record, need to have a name and an address, and will be available to the applicant, ie the Birds Nest.  In the words of Kim Giddings, Principle Licensing Officer:

''I would also advise that should you make a representation, a copy of your objection will be sent to the applicant.  You will also be advised that should the application be determined by the licensing committee of the council at a public meeting your letter would form part of agenda papers for the meeting. You will have the opportunity to address the committee on this matter. These documents are available to the press and the public.''

noisy neighbours part 1

I know this issue crops up a lot so I thought it might be of interest to people to hear about my problem. For the past couple of months the kids upstairs and their constant running about have been unbelievably noisy. And when I say running about I don't mean the pitter patter of toddlers I mean colossal crashes and bangs as the kids throw themselves around, jump off furniture and occassionally bang objects on the ground for no apparent reason. It starts about 7 in the morning and carries on until they go to school, and then it starts again about 4 when they get home continuing until at least 9 or 10pm sometimes later. Weekends and school holidays it tends to go on most of the day. Its so loud that my flatmate has moved out unable to cope with it any longer. I try and stay out as long as possible only returning home after 11 when I can be sure they're in bed. I've spoke to the mum at least 3 times about it and although she appears relatively apologetic and understanding nothing changes and the noise carries on as before. By the way, in case anyone thinks I'm exagerrating this I've lived here 4 years and never once complained to anyone despite over the years enduring loud parties, babies crying at 3am and noisy building work. These things I can accept as a part of living in a communal building and they've never bothered me but the current din is like nothing I've ever experienced before. According to the council website there are 2 options in dealing with noisy neighbours; one is to speak to the environmental health department who will take the case on and try to deal with it for you. They don't however deal with 'domestic noise' such as mine as its not covered under the 1990 Environmental Health Act which is annoying because what they're doing is much louder and more frequent than some of the other stuff covered in the act such as washing machines rumbling or loud music playing. The second option is to contact the anti social behaviour team at the nearest housing office which is what I did although their powers seem somewhat limited in dealing with this. What they did offer was to send a letter to the perpetrator and then if nothing changes we both have to attend a meeting where a 'mediator' from lewisham homes will presumably attempt to broker a deal between us. I spoke to them on Wednesday and was told by the woman on the phone, (who, it has to be said was very helpful), that said letter would arrive upstairs by Friday and then we'd take it from there so I wait with bated breath. And potentially life threatening high blood pressure...