Morris Minor Owners Club

We're feeling a little despondant. Just had a letter from the local council re. noise from vehicles and repairs thereof on our drive
Steve has been repairing the doors on my minor and evidently someone has been offended, however, they did not think to call round and say anything. We would have understood and been accomodating if they had. Now we are wondering who it can be that we've offended and it has certainly put a damper on Steve continuing with the repairs.
Any one else had anything similar happen to them?
Liz

Yes, but many years ago now. We had problems that meant we had to scrap many good Minors but i am not willing to discuss the details on a public forum!

I hope that it doesn't knock your enthusiasm too much.

My Mig welder made my neighbours lights flicker....
It took the power company ages to find the problem.
this did not help as it was winter when i was doing most of the welding.
Lucky for me we came to an agreement that suited us both.

As long as it is not for prolonged amounts of time or being done at unsocial hours, nor are repairs being done for finacial gain or you are painting panels in the open air then tell them to get stuffed.

What he said - crikey, what with loud music, lawnmowers, screaming kids and barking dogs, I think there are mroe irritating noises to complain about than a bit of car repair!

I'd've been round to see if I could scrounge some help for my motor, personally.

Me too! I'm never sure why some people feel they have to do this. Probably because they have sod all to do and can't hear the TV properly. Put a notice up and ask folks to come and speak to you if they are unhappy about anything. You're not going to beat them with a wrench are you!! ....................... well I hope not

Thanks for the empathy - your responses have brought about a smile
I think we'll drive her somewhere else to do the grinding and complete the rest on the drive. Shame as quite a few folk stop and chat when Steve's working on her
Liz

Just had a letter from the local council re. noise from vehicles and repairs thereof on our drive

I'd write back and appologise that someone has been wasting their time by contacting them without ever contacting you about noise - and that you would be very accomodating if only you knew what times it would be suitable to go about your extremely infequent car repairs.

I've been lucky with my neighbours that they let me get away with a lot of noise until 10pm.
In recent years a hopusing estate was built behind my rear facing garage - they've been much less receptive to my garage noise, but it's always worth the effort to try and accomodate.

you always get someone moaning, we live at the end of a private drive shared with 3 other houses I have always had between 4-6 cars on my drive at anytime these being new or newish like my wifes jag, motorhome, mx5, porsche, etc our one neighbour moved in the same time as us when the houses were new five years ago and never complained about the amount of cars but as soon as I put 2 moggys on there he started to complain to my nextdoor neighbour about the cars never said anything to me though except when he`s moaning about my nextdoor neighbours dogs
what really annoys me is that he`s ok with new nice shiny cars parked there but not my moggys anyway I`ve take my back fence down and put the moggys out the back yard next to the garage to keep the peace, but I`m sure he`ll find something or someone else to moan about p###k

rant over

Tony

Why not knock on your neighbour's doors - and ask them outright if they complained - and why? You are permitted to repair your own car - but you do need to be reasonable about the noise early morning/late at night. Also make sure you keep everything clean and tidy - not have the driveway looking like a scrap yard 24/7!

As a past borough councillor and more recently a parish councillor I'd definitely recommend you write back (post via a post office to get a receipt for proof of postage) in a courteous and accomodating way, and knock of neighbouring doors also in a friendly and contrite manner. Your local council staff is made up of ordinary blokes like you trying to do a good job and they don't have time to pull together people to solve things that could have been done quickly over the garden fence, but at the same time they have to (probably by law) respond in some way.
Likewise your approach to neighbours will get some people on your side, and please and surprise others please, and possibly resolve it with a bit of bargaining. Then send a note to the council describing your efforts (again, get a receipt). And all this will put you in a very good position with the council if there's further trouble.
And if in doubt go and see the Environmental officers and ask them for advice. Asking people for advice is always a good way to get them on your side, and I bet the officers will be pleased to see you - mostly they get derided and mocked! (I'm an old civil servant - I know these things.)
Best of luck, MikeN.

Like Mike said Try talking to both the Neighbours and your council.

I had a Dropped curve fitted last week and when I saw the lads clear away the cones on the last day I popped out and said thanks. The bloke was totally flumocked. He' said no one has ever said thank you before only whinged about how long it took.

I used to make teas for workmen when they were doing stuff in our previous road, if I was in during the day. They were always very pleased to get a hot cuppa!

Once again thank you for the helpful responses.
Just to let you know-
I 'phoned the council officer and told him about our situation regarding our work on the cars - that they are our hobby and 'on-going' projects but that they are never worked on noisily for continuous periods of time. I explained that we were sorry to hear we had caused someone so much distress that they felt the need to write direct to the council with a complaint and that if they had just talked to us we would have been more than happy to explain what we were doing and try to keep the noise levels to a minimum and be accomodating re times etc. I told him that I was 'phoning him to say we were unaware of the disturbance caused and could he please tell us exactly where we stand with regard to the law - so that we don't do anything illegal.
He was a very pleasant guy and also understanding whilst being proffessional. His response was that firstly legislation re work carried out on the road and work carried out on the drive was different. He then went on to explain that there were not specific laws but that their judgement was based on a law of factors: how often, loudness, time of day...
If what our neighbour is comlaining about is true then apparently we will be 'disturbing someone's rights to enjoy their property'.
The first stage of the 'complaining game' is that we are sent a letter making us aware of the complaint and asking us to do something about it and the neighbour is asked to keep a diary of the dates and times when the noise is a disturbance. If the council thinks they have a case then they will come by with noise meters and investigate further.
Sorry to waffle on but thought the above info might be helpful if anyone else is going through something similar
For those interested I'll keep you posted - although that being the case I hope you don't hear from me!!
Liz

Interesting - I had to resort to council help with a previous neighbour who insisted she had the right to play rubbish loud music (Radio One, which I despise) anytime she pleased. The only time I tried to resolve the issue politely, I got a door slammed in my face, so I had to ask the local council for help. This continued indefinitely for a long, long period of time, during which I had her accost me in the street to scream rude names at me, and also had my Traveller (previous to 'Ector) being abused in various ways (I had no off-raod parking then).

Eventually we sold the house and moved on, and I later learned that said benefits-scrounging antiosocial blight had been forcibly evicted from her nice two-bedrromed council house that my taxes had most likely subsidised and forced to get a job.
So I've seen it from both sides. Nice to know there's some justice in the world, albeit rather late, so don't worry, if anything happens it will take a lot of time - speaking from personal experience here - to get anything done, and at least you are the sort of person who regards others with respect, rather than contempt as my previous neighbour did. So good luck, and always be considerate and polite.

I've had way too much wine to be posting on here tonight.