The Reverend Miriam Mugan appeals against Three Rivers District Council to silence All Saints Church bells

4:57pm Wednesday 28th November 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Rebecca Perring, Reporter

The priest of a Croxley Green church has appealed against a decision to silence its 140-year-old clock chimes, following a complaint from a resident.

All Saints Church in the Green was handed a noise abatement notice by Three Rivers District Council on Wednesday September 26 - banning chimes between 11pm and 7am.

The first hearing of the appeal against the order, put in by the Reverend Miriam Mugan, took place on Wednesday, November 21 in Watford Magistrates Court, Clarendon Road.

Then notice comes after an officer from the council’s environmental health department visited the complainant’s house, in Windmill Drive to measure the volume of the bells and confirmed they were above statutory limits.

Since the 1870s the bells have chimed on the hour every hour but the ancient mechanism can’t be set to work between specific times so has been deactivated completely.

The case has been adjourned and another hearing will take place in January next year.

Comments(5)

Reg Edit says...
6:37am Thu 29 Nov 12

This is so stupid. Give the decision to those who were there first and have been ringing bells for over a century, and against the person who moved near the church knowing full-well the bells rang out. Utter madness to entertain the complaint in the first place. Ricky Council you should be ashamed of yourselves for letting it get this far!

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croxleyite says...
11:47am Thu 29 Nov 12

What a flagrant waste of taxpayers money! As Reg Edit quite rightly states, the bells have been chiming well before the house of the the fool who complained was even built. If you dont like the sound of shurch bells, then why buy a home in such close proximity to them?
I sincerely hope that when this imbecile has his noise abatement notice overturned, that he is billed for the cost of all the involvement of the local authority, court costs and so on. perhaps this is the same imbecile who regularly complains about school children being around his house before and after school?? Again this begs the question that if you dont want kids hanging around your home then dont buy a house close to one!
(would like to mention that TRDC need their bumps feeling for even entertaining this nonsense).

It would be interesting to know how long the complainant has lived in the house prior to decising to complain. I am sure that he's probably been living there for years and yet only just seen fit to decide that it is annoying him!

BRING THE BELLS BACK and give "Mr Wally" some earplugs!!

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Hornet68 says...
3:05pm Thu 29 Nov 12

What a kill joy to comlpain about church bells. I lived near St Marys growing up and the bell ringing was a joy. I agree with everyone if you dont like church bells or clock chimes dont buy a house near them. What will they dislike next if the bells are stopped?

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Roy Stockdill says...
7:15pm Sun 2 Dec 12

Though I am an atheist, I accept that the ringing of church bells has been a fundamental feature of English life for many centuries.

I cannot help wondering what the outcome would be if anyone complained about the noise made by Muslim mosques calling the faithful to prayer 5 times a day, including at dawn and nightfall? I bet the authorities wouldn't dare intervene.

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Stacy Hart says...
4:04pm Tue 4 Dec 12

I agree with everyone above, how stupid for someone to complain after moving in knowing full well about the bells, this kinda thing never fails to amaze me. I remember families with young children & elderly people moving in next door to and just over the road from our pub and then coming in forever complaining about the noise keeping their kids awake and they formed a little group and went to the council so we weren't allowed entertainment anymore, but for convenience sake,these same people wanted to come in and bring all the family with them on christmas day for a celebratory drink, funnily enough the landord told them all where to go in true scouser style. & the same should be said to this person wanting to stop the church bells that have been ringing, way before he/she was even a dot on the landscape getting there butt wiped. ;) xxx

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