Kirklees councillors are being urged to reject new powers to curb noisy night-time parties because it would cost too much taxpayers' money to make it worthwhile.

Parties held between 11pm and 7am are the most common source of annoyance and the 1996 Noise Act allows councils to dish out a £100 fixed penalty if a resident complains that a neighbour is being rowdy between those times.

But if the offender ignores warnings they can be prosecuted and fined a maximum of £1,000 if convicted.

However, environmental health manager Andrew Cannon says it would cost between £109,000 and £147,500 a year to have a team of officers working from 11pm to 7am seven nights a week to deal with complaints.

He said: "Only one fixed penalty ticket can be served on any one night in relation to a property and any repeat offence would require prosecution along similar lines currently adopted by the environmental health service.

"In the case of prosecution under the Noise Act, the maximum penalty is £1,000 as opposed to £5,000 under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act currently used."

He also points out the Council is one of a few local authorities which already runs an out-of-hours standby service to deal with noise complaints. It is flexible, cost effective and requires only one officer on duty.

But Mr Cannon says adopting the new powers would mean officers having to work in pairs and possibly asking for police help because of the potentially violent situations arising when investigating complaints between 11pm and 7am.

Today's environment committee is being recommended by Mr Cannon not to adopt the new powers and stick with the present method for dealing with loud residents.

Between April 1997 and March this year environmental services received 1,604 new complaints about noisy neighbours and housing services received 395 over the same period.

At present if an unruly resident ignores the Council's plea to shape up, officers carry out an investigation which includes going to the home in question to witness the nuisance.

Mr Cannon said: "This may involve planned overtime, use of tamper-proof noise recording equipment or deployment of environment services out-of-hours standby service."

If there is proof the resident is being noisy, they are slapped with a noise abatement notice and if that fails the person is taken to court and can be fined a maximum of £5,000 if convicted, as well as having their music system confiscated.

As part of the clampdown on anti-social behaviour the Council also runs a mediation service to resolve disputes between rowing neighbours and has appointed specialist nuisance and harassment officers.

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