Dealing with the locall council...

I was the noisy and antisocial neighbour, while I was younger. Now, I'm grateful to have returned home. My neighbours are good to me, and everyone gets on well.

My neighbour, who lives opposite me, said that he could lift me; if I need one. The taxi driver I got is beginning to become dear. Plus, he was delayed as he had paperwork to do, after lifting an elderly disabled man; beforehand.

Long before my diagnosis I’d had problems with noise pollution involving other neighbours and their dogs and children behaving anti-socially where the local council and police are Labour controlled - because I was the only one making the complaint, I was seen as the troublemaker when I reported the issue to the council and I was threatened with arrest and breach of tenancy by the police if I did not withdraw the complaint and basically be quiet and pipe down - you will never get anywhere with any council when it comes to ASB & noise pollution issues, as they will always seek to prosecute the person making the complaint or raising the issue, whom they will always regard as a troublemaker 

Sorry to be negative but I think there is no chance.I tried a light pollution complaint and they made me gather evidence for a month just to say which they knew all along the threshold has not been met.

I would insist on a meeting and explain your concerns and your diagnosis and see if they look like they can help.

Would the GP writer a supporting letter ?

Hi There,

I am Mr CPW and council issue man .CPW stands for community protection warning.I am afraid I am going to be truthful with you.

My experience is that dealing with the council is a humiliating ugly and stressful experience.I am Autistic have OCD and anxiety.The council with me say they understand and want to help yet when I ask for their policy on Autism they do not seem to have one.

When I have said that the issues with my neighbours are caused by the council not understanding how neurodivergent people see the world they discount this and expect me to engage how non neuro/ non mentally ill people should behave.

With councils what they do is they have issues they think are trendy and will help with but our world they do not.In theory we qualify for blue badge under hidden disability hate that term yet to qualify you would have the temperament of being a banned driver!

So on the helpful side-

1- Do not give up.

2- Get themes of all the senior people in your council and send them a polite email outlining your concerns.

3- Ask your local MP to help.

4- If you get no where there is an ombudsman that will look at your complaint.

This will not be quick but please do not give up and keep us posted.

I am so sorry for this and councils should know better

NAS93815 said:

One of the issues is noise pollution, that affects my hearing condition: Hyperacusis,

The process of making the complaint is here:

https://www.gov.uk/how-to-resolve-neighbour-disputes/complain-about-noise-to-the-council

You will need to gather evidence to make a case here so I would advise getting hold of a decibel meter to establish if there are any rules being broke.

There is quite a good guide to all this here:

https://www.ellisandco.co.uk/news/noisy-neighbours

You will find it really hard to use your hyperacusis as the base for the complaints though. I don't think there is any requirement for your neighbour to take care just because of your condition - the onus will be on you to soundproof yourself agains normal environmental noise such as grass cutting, some dog barking, cars in the street etc.

Excessive noise can be picked up by the decibel meter and you can record it to prove date, time and location with the reading.

Finding an officer from the council willing to do something about it is another problem - they are probably understaffed and carry little actual power to enforce changes by your neighbours.

You will most likely have more success in speaking to your neighbour directly and asking them to be understanding - let them know when suitable time windows are for stuff like grass cutting, DIY etc so you can get your ear defenders out.

Be wary of antagonising your neighbours now - there are other posts here of neighbours who were approached and created a vendetta against the person with the disability - see here:

https://community.autism.org.uk/f/adults-on-the-autistic-spectrum/38502/neighbours-the-long-running-english-version

The diplomatic approach is one I would recommend in your situation, possibly starting with taking a gift (muffin basket maybe) and get to know them first.