Louth ice cream seller investigated after complaint over volume of van chimes

• Report by Helen Steel

An ice cream seller is being investigated over claims his van's chimes are too loud.

East Lindsey District Council notified Jamie Tomlinson, who runs Harrison's Ices, that someone had taken issue with the music he plays on his rounds when he was in Louth, Lincolnshire, last month.

The authority says it has a statutory duty to investigate all complaints, although it has not installed any noise-monitoring equipment as part of its enquiries.

Jamie described the claim as "nonsense", insisting he adheres to all the relevant regulations on ice cream van chimes.

He said: "We can only chime for 12 seconds - you have to wait two minutes before you can go onto the next street to start chiming. The decibels for instance - ours is about 45. The highest you can be is 80 decibels"

As well as guidance over the frequency and volume, there are laws governing ice cream van chimes, including that they can must be operated between the hours of noon and 7pm, and "as not to give reasonable cause for annoyance to persons in the vicinity."

A spokesperson from East Lindsey District Council said: "The council does not have a choice in whether or not to investigate. This is part of our statutory duty to investigate potential statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which state we must investigate all complaints we receive.

"Every year we receive and investigate in excess of 800 noise complaints about a variety of issues ranging from dog barking to industrial noise."

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