Worcester News
"Aaaay olll ronnnn!" scrap dealers cause a headache - ballot
12:30pm Wednesday 22nd February 2012
THE screeching wail of scrap metal dealers is driving people to distraction, councillors have been told.
The familiar cry of “scrap iron” and “any old iron”, often preceded by the call from a battered bugle has been echoing around the lanes of Kempsey, near Worcester, entirely too often for villager Martin Bennett, of Napleton Lane.
He said he had no problem with the principle of scrap metal dealers travelling around for trade, but he did take issue with “this sort of noise” when they are hawking for odds and ends as they drive slowly past people’s homes.
Problems of noise have been reported both in Worcester and Redditch.
“I understand some calling out is permitted in law for hawkers, but not leaning on horns or, in one case we had last week, holding an air horn out the window for periods of an hour or more,” he said.
He asked a Kempsey Parish Council if anything could be done about the noise issue.
Councillor John Michael, council chairman, said it was a “wider problem around the county.”
One of the ward’s district councillors Adam Rea said Malvern Hills authority looked after issuing any waste carrier licences, which must be displayed on all the vehicles.
But noise complaints are handled and tackled by Worcestershire Regulatory Services officers, with powers to act under the Environmental Protection Act.
Coun Michael said it was “hard to control” the scrap dealers but the council would talk to the local police officer in a bid to make the dealers “more user-friendly”.
His colleague Coun David Harrison said the separate issue of un-licensed scrap dealers had been “all but eradicated” after a crackdown by the district council.
Steve Jorden, regulatory services chief, said unless the noise was amplified they had little power to act in law.
“We can’t really do anything where people are using loud hailers or bugles and horns,” he said.
“Where they’re using a loud speaker system – an amplified system – we can, but then it’s a matter of catching them and they are by their nature transient, so that can be hard to do.”
He said dealers could be, and often were, “spoken to about noise” either in writing, by phone or face-to-face during routine stop-checks, particularly if complainants supplied vehicle registration numbers or dealers’ vehicle branding.
“Most are happy to take the advice on, but there are one or two who know the letter of the law and are less helpful,” said Mr Jorden.
Complaints should be made by calling 01905 822799 or e-mailing wrsenquiries@worcsregservices.gov.uk