Our good neighbours in Breton house also overlook the service yard to the north and east of our two blocks. Like Ben Jonson House residents, Breton folk have been disturbed by noise in the yard, particularly during quiet hours.
Here is note from a Breton house resident on the subject. I'll just mention here that to the best of my knowledge the rules for what noise can be made when are set by the City, not by house groups:
I live in Breton House overlooking the Whitecross St loading bay.
Over the issue of noisy overnight vents in the loading bay I've been in touch with Lee Sandford at the CoL, repeatedly since January. There have been various inspections and suggestions over what vents are causing the problem: the cinema, Cote, the car park. Lee has been very sympathetic and pursued lengthy enquiries. A noise officer turned up at night and made a report, and they have been investigating and repairing many different vents related to the the various businesses. This may have helped with some noise sources but perhaps due to the cold weather there are still noisy vents overnight. I have been told several times that 'no-one else has complained' - so if any BJH residents do hear this overnight roaring sound, it might be helpful if they contacted the house officer or Environmental Health too.
I got fed up with Cote's early deliveries, especially on a Saturday. Lee put me in touch with the Barbican Centre and Ruth Lambert responded to me. I was given conflicting information about weekends - that the gates should be kept closed until 9am and that Cote is permitted to have deliveries from 8am on Saturday. They were having delivery lorries turning up, reversing, beeping, unloading etc. from 7.40am. I photographed some of these incidents and sent them to Ruth at her request.
She has been in touch with the restaurant and since then (though I have only been here one weekend since) there has possibly been a slight improvement. The first time the gates were kept closed it made little difference since the lorries were still turning up at 7.40 and making noise outside the gates. Ruth went back to the restaurant to tell them this was still unsuitable.
The biggest problem now seems to be that residents' groups apparently - according to Ruth - agreed that Cote could have deliveries from 8am on a Saturday. I find this very disappointing if it is true. The restaurant is still scheduling its glass recycling collection and other deliveries for precisely 8am on a Saturday morning. I realise that this isn't excruciatingly early but it is still early enough to wake many of us up on a day when we could otherwise enjoy a lie-in. I don't know if anything can be done about this?
I am pestering Ruth for an answer as to why the City of London's own tenants are allowed to contravene so dramatically the City's own Code of Conduct for Licensed Premises (deliveries only 10-6, Mon-Fr). I know there is little to hope for there, it just annoys me they can get away with being such bad neighbours.
2 comments :
I tend to be disturbed more by rubbish collections than by delivery vehicles, but I sympathise greatly with how difficult it is to resolve any problems with Cote.
I have no idea who these residents groups are who claim to act on our behalf but who don't communicate or consult with us. If they have agreed to these early deliveries then it would be helpful to know who they are, and how they came to that agreement with Cote.
My understanding is the same as yours, that the City's licensing guidelines say there should be no deliveries or collections at weekend. But that doesn't seem to worry Cote.
I recently had the opportunity to speak directly to Sir Nicholas Kenyon about this, after he'd publicly stated at the "cultural hub" meeting that he'd sort this out. Privately, he said it was a tricky issue because Cote were a third party, not a part of the Barbican Center itself. He said he'd ask his building managers to speak to Cote, but didn't sound very interested and I think he was just trying to fob me off. This inability or lack of desire to control Cote is one of the things that worried me about the cinema development when it was first proposed, and it's an issue that the Barbican Centre seems to have washed its hands of. They're clearly more interested in the money, and in expansion, than in being good neighbours.
It would be interesting if the Ben Jonson House Group know anything about this agreement about weekend delivery hours? If not, can it be raised at the next BA meeting to find out if anyone there will admit to being involved?
I'm not aware of any agreement with the Ben Jonson house group. I will ask the BA chair to add this to the agenda of the next BAGC meeting.
Post a Comment