What are the legal amounts of noise an ice cream man can make?

Grinder lol

Ice cream men in my area have these insanely loud and obnoxious tunes they play, often times as late as 9pm and on more than one occasion around 10pm.

I'm getting sick of it. You may think I'm overreacting but you have to hear the amount of noise they make, it's ridiculous. If I have people over that aren't from my area they always comment on how loud they are and how late they drive around. They turn it off for a minute then play it again for even longer. It's made worse by the fact that there's so many estates so close to each other and you can hear them clearly for a long time until they get to the estates next to mine and my own, then it's ALL I can hear. Don't even get me started on how the dogs react. This is legitimately lowering the quality of life in my area.

I tried googling this but couldn't find anything that helps me, just legal decibel levels for the UK at certain times. What are they in Ireland for residential areas? How do a go about proving how loud they are and who do I report this to? Will anything even happen?

Paulw

Contact your local council. They will be able to advise you correctly.

Cody Pomeray

There is no Irish equivalent to the British Standard.

The Irish courts have used the British standard, taking into account various factors like the tonal nature of the noise (is it a monotonic burring or tonal, like Chopin's nocturnes?) as well as, perhaps most importantly, the plain and simple standards of ordinary Irish people, who are inherently sensible and do not seek to live by arbitrary decibel standards.

Such a householder's first option should be the local authority, their second option sounds like a fairly clear cut legal action.

Grinder lol

Cody Pomeray wrote: »

There is no Irish equivalent to the British Standard.

The Irish courts have used the British standard, taking into account various factors like the tonal nature of the noise (is it a monotonic burring or tonal, like Chopin's nocturnes?) as well as, perhaps most importantly, the plain and simple standards of ordinary Irish people, who are inherently sensible and do not seek to live by arbitrary decibel standards.

Such a householder's first option should be the local authority, their second option sounds like a fairly clear cut legal action.

I'm thinking I could set a camera or some kind of recorder by my window next times he comes, so I could give the local council a good idea of what this is like. Would that be necessary or will they investigate this because of a single complaint with no evidence alone?

Cody Pomeray

Just from a practical viewpoint, sometimes recording equipment doesn't fully capture the true context or volume of a nuisance. It certainly wouldn't hurt as a practical aid to letting the local authority see what is going on.

I have no idea what criteria a local authority would use in their follow up of a resident's complaint, it's not really a legal question and your guess is as good as mine. I'd say they take it seriously like, I hope you get it sorted.

Overheal

Silly thought: but have you contacted the owner/operator of the vehicle?

Bepolite

I can see it now; a screwball, a 99 and a STFU please

Kevin3

Technically illegal if they don't have a permit from the local authority. I doubt any of them have one, just one of those things that's not enforced. It's a Garda matter.

S.I. No. 190/1963 - Road Traffic (Construction, Equipment and Use of Vehicles) Regulations, 1963.

Loudspeakers

35. (1) A vehicle shall not, subject to the provisions of sub-article (2) of this article, be used on a public road while there is in or on, or attached to, the vehicle (or in or on, or attached to, any trailer attached to such vehicle) a public address system incorporating a loudspeaker or similar device capable of being heard outside the vehicle or trailer.

(2) This sub-article shall not apply to—

(a) a vehicle used for police, ambulance or fire brigade purposes,

(b) in the case of a large public service vehicle, a device used to address intending passengers, or

(c) a vehicle used for the purpose of an address relating to a Presidential, Dáil or local election or to a referendum.

(3) (a) A person may apply to a local authority for the issue to him of a special permit authorising the use, on a public road in the functional area of such local authority, of a vehicle or trailer which would contravene sub-article (1) of this article, and such local authority may issue such permit subject to such conditions, limitations and restrictions as they consider necessary or desirable.

(b) In this sub-article "local authority" means the corporation of a county or other borough, the council of a county or the council of an urban district.

nuac

Measurement of sound is rather complicated.

Have to establish the level of background/ambient noise.etc

I have seen sound experts differ on court on the various parameters used.

They tend to be expensive witnesses.


As ice-cream vans only operate in good weather at times when there are kids out and about, is is really a major proble,