Party time in Studentland
Jun. 6th, 2021 02:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustThe student population are doing their best to cram a year's worth of partying into what remains of the term, and the resident population are doing our best not to begrudge them their fun.
Until yesterday, we were doing pretty well: there were gatherings in the backyards every evening, and since our bedroom overlooks the garden, I would be lulled to sleep by a constant hubbub of voices, like the roaring of the sea (with the occasional seagull shriek). Not everyone got off so lightly: the three a.m. rugby match in one of the terraces brought complaints from the adjacent development.
So it was just the luck of the draw when our next door neighbours held a barbecue, and we got all the burnt-meat smells through our open windows (would it have been better to be assailed by delicious roasting smells, or would that have been worse?).
As the afternoon wore on, and they got out the fancy sound system, I grew less philosophical, and by the time I was getting ready for bed, evendurham_rambler could hear it, and was leaning out of the upstairs window, trying to count how many people were in the garden (,ore than 30, he thought, but not many more). Someone must have noticed him, because the sound deck fell silent, the foorbell rang, and two young women apologised about the noise, they were moving the party elsewhere ...
Elsewhere turned out to be two doors down the street, and once the music started again, this made no difference whatsoever. Eventuallydurham_rambler called the police (non-emergency number); it took them 20 minutes to answer the phone, by which time university security, called direct by another neighbour, had arrived. There is a demarcation dispute, to use an old trades union term, going on here: police management tell us that they are responsible for keepong the peace, and we should call the police on 101, who will refer the call on if appropriate. The people who answer the 101 line have other ideas, and try to refer us to the council's noise prevention service (office hours only) or otherwise discourage us ...
I'm hoping for a quieter night tonight; I don't sleep well in the summer heat anyway.
Until yesterday, we were doing pretty well: there were gatherings in the backyards every evening, and since our bedroom overlooks the garden, I would be lulled to sleep by a constant hubbub of voices, like the roaring of the sea (with the occasional seagull shriek). Not everyone got off so lightly: the three a.m. rugby match in one of the terraces brought complaints from the adjacent development.
So it was just the luck of the draw when our next door neighbours held a barbecue, and we got all the burnt-meat smells through our open windows (would it have been better to be assailed by delicious roasting smells, or would that have been worse?).
As the afternoon wore on, and they got out the fancy sound system, I grew less philosophical, and by the time I was getting ready for bed, even
durham_rambler could hear it, and was leaning out of the upstairs window, trying to count how many people were in the garden (,ore than 30, he thought, but not many more). Someone must have noticed him, because the sound deck fell silent, the foorbell rang, and two young women apologised about the noise, they were moving the party elsewhere ...Elsewhere turned out to be two doors down the street, and once the music started again, this made no difference whatsoever. Eventually
durham_rambler called the police (non-emergency number); it took them 20 minutes to answer the phone, by which time university security, called direct by another neighbour, had arrived. There is a demarcation dispute, to use an old trades union term, going on here: police management tell us that they are responsible for keepong the peace, and we should call the police on 101, who will refer the call on if appropriate. The people who answer the 101 line have other ideas, and try to refer us to the council's noise prevention service (office hours only) or otherwise discourage us ...I'm hoping for a quieter night tonight; I don't sleep well in the summer heat anyway.
