What can be done about noisy neighbours?

The problem of noise pollution in Ayia Napa has been a subject of reports in the media. However, there is little news on noise pollution in Nicosia. Granted, it is not on the same scale as in a tourist resort, but people living in residential areas of the capital are often subjected to sleepless nights because others have noisy parties at home. This may have been exacerbated by the financial crisis – in the past teenagers arranged for parties in clubs and pubs, now they ‘celebrate’ at home – and relatively young persons (up to the age of 30 or so) – live with their parents meaning having parties at homes never stop.

Some follow the law which says no loud music is allowed after midnight, some don’t. Before midnight or after, it is definitely noise pollution, particularly when for some reason the loudspeakers are turned on full blast in the peoples’ gardens instead of inside the house. The party goers may or may not turn down that music on the time specified by the legislation, but they also walk around in the vicinity for hours during and after, talking and shouting, which no law can prohibit I guess.

There are more issues, such as the length of time people are allowed to play music. Recently, a neighbour started the loud music at 7pm. Are they allowed to do that non-stop until midnight?

Then, arguably most important, can you drown it out if you need to sleep? No! Ear plugs don’t really work, and I even tried to drive 100 metres from my home in a desperate attempt to get away (the idea was to sleep in my car for a few hours), but apparently the whole neighbourhood is meant to be part of the said celebrations.

Complaining to the culprits does not do the trick, I discovered, as one has to somehow live with the people next door.

The best solution my family has come up with is trying to find out when one of these noisy events will take place and relocate to a hotel for the night – costly and not solving the problem of a society bent on creating noise in the spirit of togetherness.

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