Noise is the biggest cause of dispute between neighbours. For the past two years Bradford Council's mediation service has tried to help. JIM GREENHALF reports

Good fences may make good neighbours, but that little maxim was probably coined before the days of Dolby Stereo, the family car - and the Battersbys, Coronation Street's neighbours from hell.

During my early days as a T&A reporter, the only thing that used to come through the walls of council houses was condensation. Now it's noise, a good deal of it amplified noise.

That can be dealt with by the pollution section of the local authority's environmental health department. Inspectors fit a meter and carry out a decibel check. People refusing to turn down loud stereos have had their equipment confiscated.

Some disputes erupt because neighbours fall out over car noise or the encroachment of a vehicle on what someone regards as his or her territory.

Bradford pensioner Kenneth Hall was recently found guilty of stabbing the relative of a neighbour with whom he had been having just such a dispute - reportedly over seven years. Imagine the energy that must have gone into preserving that state of un-neighbourly warfare.

Most rows don't go that far. Some are resolved by Bradford Council's mediation unit, a body of 24 volunteer peace-makers whom angry tenants can invite round to establish a little conciliation.

They are a mixed bunch, students, retired people, young mothers. They receive training but no pay, only the cost of travelling to and from their assignments. They work in pairs, their visits are by invitation for they have no powers of enforcement. They keep no records.

It sounds daunting, like walking unarmed into the middle of a civil war. But volunteer Susan Hodgson, married with two daughters, says the experience is very different.

"Basically people are really nice. Their anger is not directed at the mediator, they want you there. The problem usually comes down to lack of communication, misunderstanding, not malice and ill-will."

By day she works for Health Promotions, inside the Salts Mill complex. She is also a part-time student at Bradford and Ilkley Community College. Susan devotes one evening a week to mediation and has been doing so for two years.

The most obvious question is why does she do it? After all she must have a busy enough life, working, studying and looking after her family.

"I am very fortunate. I have good neighbours and appreciate it. Good neighbours can be a support network," she replied.

However, her desire to spread good neighbourliness must not be misinterpreted: she does not go round preaching the virtues of tolerance and understanding. Her job is to listen, act as a go-between, and assist the warring parties to come to a mutually satisfactory solution.

"Sometimes they just need to talk things through to find their own solution. A lot of cases arise between families because the children have fallen out and then the parents get involved. Sometimes you get a family living next door to someone living on their own who perhaps has forgotten how difficult it is to keep noise down when children are around.

"A lot of people initially think it's being done deliberately. In most cases it's unthinking," she said.

Jenny Potter, the council officer who runs the mediation service, came up with an example of how different lifestyles can, in the first instance, create bad feeling.

"A young couple moved into a first-floor flat, but they didn't have a carpet. An old lady living in the ground-floor flat below them complained of the noise. The couple told us they were in a savings scheme and would be getting a carpet in a month. She was more understanding, and in the end the couple started looking after her garden for her."

She estimates that about 80 of the 100 cases which have come her way since the service started in January 1996 have had a satisfactory resolution.

"Quite often after the initial meeting with a mediator, people don't need us any more because they discover their neighbour isn't the monster they thought. In most cases the person causing the noise isn't aware there is a problem," she added.

The technique for mediating is simple. Susan Hodgson and a colleague will go to a home, usually the home where the complaint has originated. They see each of the parties separately, clearly establishing the nature of the problem.

Without making any judgement about the dispute, the mediators will ask both parties what outcome they would like, how they intend to go on living as neighbours, what is important for them to enable an amicable settlement to be reached.

If the answers from both parties suggest that resolution is possible, a joint meeting is then arranged perhaps a day or two later, with the mediators present. This meeting usually takes place on neutral ground, at the local church hall or community centre for example.

A positive outcome would be for each of the parties to agree to modify behaviour at certain times, to show a little respect for the other's privacy and space. People quickly become enraged by noise because it violates their space, literally disturbs their peace.

Jenny Potter says most disputes are resolved within a few days, although there is no time limit or schedule. In cases where agreement has not been reached, the mediators offer to return at a later date to try again, leaving the antagonists with at least the hope of an open door.

As this service is only available to council tenants, other residents have to make their own arrangements. A friend of mine, irate at the habit of his neighbour's dog fouling his front garden, took matters into his own hands by thumping his neighbour.

Jenny Potter recommends a more restrained approach.

"Go round and try to talk in a calm way, maybe waiting until the following day. Explain how you see the situation. If it's noise, ask them to turn it down or play it at another time. But don't go in there with all guns blazing," she said.

But what if you find yourself with a family like the Battersbys on the other side of the fence?

In reality there are worse families in parts of Bradford, but they cause trouble for everybody not just the people next door. The Council has only recently adopted a get-tough policy with such families, threatening eviction as the ultimate sanction (last year Bradford evicted one troublesome family compared with six in Kirklees).

Whether you go for conciliation or other action, the law acknowledges that people should no longer have to suffer their neighbour's noise in silence.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.