Fireworks and consideration for neighbours

[oggbashan]

It's ten minutes to midnight.

Half an hour ago one of the neighbours, in a densely packed residential area, started his firework display. It is still going on.

It isn't a small display. He is using large rockets and mortars. The bangs rattle windows and doors and set off car alarms over a half mile radius.

His garden is about forty foot square.

I can hear my immediate neighbours' children screaming because they have been woken up in the middle of their night. The local cats have sought hideaways and at least three dogs are barking complaints.

The neighbour must have spent hundreds of pounds, if not over one thousand pounds, on his firework display. It isn't the first time he has annoyed the neighbours. He has firework displays for every family birthday, for Christmas, for New Year and for several other events in the year.

The neighbours' complaints have been met with indifference. He doesn't understand or care what the effect is on other people. The Christmas Eve display is the most resented because it wakes up already excited children. Trying to be Father Christmas when the children can't go to sleep is difficult.

I despair of some people.

Og

 

[R. Richard]

Truly it is written" "The ass holes we have always with us."

 

[Huckleman2000]

That's awfully late to start fireworks. Aren't they supposed to be at sundown, generally?

Still, if you're having a celebration, the one no-fail way to put a smile on everyone's face is fireworks. I realize they're kind of a pain in the ass, but for a few days out of the year, I would find it hard to begrudge someone a fireworks display.

[edit to add] I live in a townhome complex that bans fireworks displays. My view overlooks a valley and opposite ridgeline that is largely unincorporated residential area, so on July 4th and New Year's Eve there are all sorts of private fireworks displays, and it's really fun to watch.

 

[Weird Harold]

The neighbours' complaints have been met with indifference. He doesn't understand or care what the effect is on other people. The Christmas Eve display is the most resented because it wakes up already excited children. Trying to be Father Christmas when the children can't go to sleep is difficult.

England doesn't have noise abatement laws? Obviously they don't have "safe and sane" fireworks laws, but the same public nusance laws that give you some recourse against loud parties should apply to fireworks at midnight.

 

[rachlou]

As I understand it, if you have a problem with noisy neighbours, you can complain to the local council? Or you can ring the police in the first instance? I am sure that with fireworks displays, there are strict guidelines regulating private displays and there are limits as to the size of the firworks being let off in a garden, probably due to health and safety issues.
If your fuckwit neighbour is that obnoxious, I am surprised he hasn't been lynched yet by other angry families living nearby. If he was my neighbour, I would be seriously pissed off too.

Ok having just looked into this further, here is a site you may find useful -

http://www.surreyheath.gov.uk/environment/EnvironmentalHealth/fireworknewleg.htm

 

[scheherazade_79]

One of his neighbours needs to buy a power hose and just soak his entire stash of fireworks before he has the chance to set them off. Once in a blue moon is fine, but if this is a regular occurrence and he won't listen to the way his neighbours are feeling, then he'll just have to deal with the consequences.

 

[oggbashan]

Thank you for your responses.

Thank you to rachlou for the link. Unfortunately the laws only apply to UK sourced fireworks, not the illegal ones he uses. Of course, the neighbours have to PROVE that they are illegal. The 11pm curfew is only enforceable if you can get a policeman to attend and most firework nights they are too busy.

Locally there are about six firework shops selling fireworks all year round. They are supposed to sell the larger fireworks only to organised displays but ANYONE can walk in and say that they are 'organising' a display. If they don't say 'organised display' the shopkeepers will prompt them. It doesn't appear to be illegal to import or sell fireworks that breach the new laws - only illegal to set them off. Then the authorities have to prove from the charred remains that it was an illegal firework.

As for noise abatement? We have to prove with a calibrated measuring device that he broke the noise levels. We might get organised to do that next year but it isn't easy. Even if convicted all he will get is a conditional discharge - and his next 'display' will be from his brother's house down the road.

He has seven foot high fences around his small garden and two rottweilers. I wouldn't like to try soaking his fireworks. The rottweilers get very agitated during his 'displays'. One of the neighbours has suggested that we try action through the RSPCA for cruelty to his dogs (and the neighbours' pets). That might work.

Og

 

[matriarch]

We had to put up with similar last night. Thank god it wasn't midnight, but it was around 9pm, until about 10.30, on and off. God, they were loud bangs. Min went outside, and it became clear they were being set off in a house a couple of doors down......and being fired off directly towards us!!!! They were exploding right over the cottage.

We'd had enough after the first two.

Bastard!!

And, of course, we'll get more tonight, on the actual Guy Fawkes night. I thought living in a village, they'd all get together and have one joint fire and display.

No such luck.

I love fireworks, in the right place and properly set off. This was neither.

 

[rachlou]

He has seven foot high fences around his small garden and two rottweilers. I wouldn't like to try soaking his fireworks. The rottweilers get very agitated during his 'displays'. One of the neighbours has suggested that we try action through the RSPCA for cruelty to his dogs (and the neighbours' pets). That might work.

Og

Oh he sounds a real charmer... the cruelty angle might work; if nothing else it will piss him off immensely when the RSPCA go sniffing round...

 

[Weird Harold]

One of the neighbours has suggested that we try action through the RSPCA for cruelty to his dogs (and the neighbours' pets). That might work.

Og

If that doesn't work, it sounds like it's about time for some torches, pitchforks, and a scene from Frankenstein.

 

[SeaCat]

Thank you for your responses.

Thank you to rachlou for the link. Unfortunately the laws only apply to UK sourced fireworks, not the illegal ones he uses. Of course, the neighbours have to PROVE that they are illegal. The 11pm curfew is only enforceable if you can get a policeman to attend and most firework nights they are too busy.

Locally there are about six firework shops selling fireworks all year round. They are supposed to sell the larger fireworks only to organised displays but ANYONE can walk in and say that they are 'organising' a display. If they don't say 'organised display' the shopkeepers will prompt them. It doesn't appear to be illegal to import or sell fireworks that breach the new laws - only illegal to set them off. Then the authorities have to prove from the charred remains that it was an illegal firework.

As for noise abatement? We have to prove with a calibrated measuring device that he broke the noise levels. We might get organised to do that next year but it isn't easy. Even if convicted all he will get is a conditional discharge - and his next 'display' will be from his brother's house down the road.

He has seven foot high fences around his small garden and two rottweilers. I wouldn't like to try soaking his fireworks. The rottweilers get very agitated during his 'displays'. One of the neighbours has suggested that we try action through the RSPCA for cruelty to his dogs (and the neighbours' pets). That might work.

Og

Og sometimes one has to become even nastier than the one causing headaches.

In your case maybe something like organising the neighbors, with each family going to the local boating stores and picking up some of those nice little Air Horns they sell to the owners of small boats. (You know the kind I'm sure. They use compressed air and are quite loud.)

On the next night of display have all those with horns gather about his place a couple of hours after his party is finished. At an apointed time have all of them sound the horns for roughly one minute, then leave.

A couple of times of this and your neighbor may get the idea.

There was a case several years ago in which a young man fired off fireworks at odd times. Now on Cape Cod it is illegal to not only set them off but to own them. His neighboirs called the police each time he set off his fireworks but he would only fire a couple before heading inside. Because of this he was never caught by the police.

His neighbors weren't stupid, nor were they fooled. They knew he often made trips out of state, which was when he would pick up the fireworks. They also figured out where he stored them. Vonviently in a shed in his back yard. Inconciently this shed was also watched over by several large and nasty dogs.

One night, as reported by the local newspaper, there was a tremendous blast. It was loud enough that it even broke a couple of windows. No one could figure out where the blast had come from until the next morning when they were greeted by the sight of this mans shed completely destroyed. Of course there was an investigation by the police and the Fire deptartment. During this investigation it came out that he had just returned from one of his trips to the southern states, and had brought back with him several hundred pounds of Fireworks. Somehow a fire had started in this shed, which caused the detonation of nearly the entire stock at nearly the same time.

Strangely enough this young man never did set of anymore fireworks in that neighborhood.

Cat

Oh and no, I wasn't involved and I can prove I wasn't in the state at that time.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Thank you for your responses.

Thank you to rachlou for the link. Unfortunately the laws only apply to UK sourced fireworks, not the illegal ones he uses. Of course, the neighbours have to PROVE that they are illegal. The 11pm curfew is only enforceable if you can get a policeman to attend and most firework nights they are too busy.

Locally there are about six firework shops selling fireworks all year round. They are supposed to sell the larger fireworks only to organised displays but ANYONE can walk in and say that they are 'organising' a display. If they don't say 'organised display' the shopkeepers will prompt them. It doesn't appear to be illegal to import or sell fireworks that breach the new laws - only illegal to set them off. Then the authorities have to prove from the charred remains that it was an illegal firework.

As for noise abatement? We have to prove with a calibrated measuring device that he broke the noise levels. We might get organised to do that next year but it isn't easy. Even if convicted all he will get is a conditional discharge - and his next 'display' will be from his brother's house down the road.

He has seven foot high fences around his small garden and two rottweilers. I wouldn't like to try soaking his fireworks. The rottweilers get very agitated during his 'displays'. One of the neighbours has suggested that we try action through the RSPCA for cruelty to his dogs (and the neighbours' pets). That might work.

Og

One or two fireworks fired over his fence might do the trick... it wasn't your fault the fuses were too little to loft them up high enough- and in fact you weren't there at all, and you can prove it.