A pair of crowing cockerels have tormented residents of a busy town centre street in Ryde for some 7 years and, despite the issue of an abatement notice and several trips to court, the crowing continues.
The dispute, which began back in 2017, has seen several residents of Pelhurst Road in Ryde having to listen to cockerels relentlessly crowing – sometimes as much as 116 times a day.
A direct neighbour – who lives next door and shall be referred to as Neighbour 1 – first heard the noise back in 2017 and immediately thought it odd that cockerels were being kept in the back garden of a property in the centre of the Island’s biggest town. Summers in their garden were blighted by the constant crowing and being woken up at the crack of dawn – even on a weekend – was a regular occurrence.
Fast forward to 2019 and Neighbour 1 had set up noise recording equipment in their home and were keeping logs in attempts to try and show the scale of the relentless crowing to the powers that be. A visit from the Isle of Wight Council was of no success after they were unable to hear the crowing for themselves. Neighbour 1 and their family were told they ‘couldn’t expect to live in silence’.
Police attended Neighbour 1’s home and themselves raised the issue with the Council and the local ward councillor.
The Isle of Wight Council issued an abatement notice in August of that year telling Mr X (as he is to be known here) to abate the noise by 11th October 2019. Within the notice, it was also said that the recurrence of the nuisance would be prohibited.
Following the imposition of the notice, Mr X made several claims, including that Neighbour 1 had tampered with the recording devices and that the readings were falsified as a result – he subsequently appealed the matter at the Isle of Wight Magistrates in October 2020, but saw his application dismissed.
On that occasion, Magistrates considered the impact on the life of on Neighbour 1 and their family and that their detailed log of events was ‘compelling’. Their observations were corroborated by the IWC’s Environmental Protection Officer (EHO), Richard Downham. The noise has never actually been abated and instead Mr X has moved the cockerels around in his property, including at one point where they were in the basement and could be heard through the floorboards.
In 2022 they were moved outside once more, continuing to crow.
It’s not just Neighbour 1 that have been affected by the crowing, another neighbour – known as Neighbour 2 – has also been made to put up with the constant noise pollution. Having bought the property back in November 2021, it wasn’t until April 2022 when Neighbour 2 moved in – following works on the property – and discovered the noise coming from beneath their bedroom.
Summer 2022 passed and having spoken to the Isle of Wight Council some years prior, Neighbour 2 were told that although there was an active abatement notice, they needed to be treated as a separate complaint. On the first day that Neighbour 2 kept a log, there were 119 crows in just 136 minutes.
Environmental Health had to alert Mr X that recording equipment was to be installed and so one of the noisy birds was moved, meaning that when recorded, the noise wasn’t exceeding the level on the abatement notice.
In July 2023, Neighbour 2 wrote to Mr X advising him that a family member had contracted cancer and that the crowing noise they could hear loudly from their bedroom wouldn’t allow him to recover from his chemotherapy. Mr X ignored Neighbour 2’s letter and the crowing continued as her husband recovered earlier this year.
Fast forward to September 2024 and the crowing continues…
Where’s a fox when you want one?
Just shows how usless this council is. The cant even get their heads around removing a few chickens. Incompetence at its finest
Cockerels. If it were chickens they wouldn’t be crowing so less of a noise issue.
What? The cockerels don’t even have the weekend off? They need to be unionised.
Are you sure the cockerels can read the notices
What a load of cock
‘at one point where they were in the basement’
At what point would, or should, the RSPCA be stepping in? I can’t see that keeping cockerels in a basement, or anywhere indoors, is a good and healthy thing for the birds.
How can one household make other peoples lives a misery. Apart from the noise there is the smell also its residential not a small holding . I think the council are remiss in their handling of the situation. Apart from all this what are the R SPCA doing , if these bird are living in a basement half the time. Cruelty to say the least.