West End Extra - Letters: noise

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 8 June 2007

Bang on about the noise

• NOISY building works are rightly prohibited on Saturday afternoons and Sundays. After all, a little (possible) peace for Soho residents is not too much to ask is it?
Why, then, are noisy road works approved at such times?
Well, one good reason is that there is an emergency. Another, less convincing, reason is that of traffic disruption.
So, would someone from Westminster Council or Cable & Wireless or Advent or whoever arranged the works care to explain why highly noisy cabling works were carried out over the weekend in Meard Street?
They were planned works, and so not an emergency; and Meard Street is no important traffic route – indeed, the works were on the pedestrianised zone, be it footway or footpath.
Would the relevant directors of these organisations who set such works going like their Sundays to be disrupted by unnecessary drillings and screechings and bangings?
As for the other roadworks that take place – eg, in Dean Street – that may disrupt traffic: well, they are going on for weeks and weeks; so, given that the traffic is disrupted over those many weeks in any case, why the need for Sunday working?
Indeed, the authorities are continually seeking to restrict traffic in central London; so there is even less reason to think the work needs to be completed as quickly as possible.
Could someone offer any good explanations?
PETER CAVE
Meard Street, W1

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld. Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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