This man spent £7,000 soundproofing his Brighton home because of noisy students

A man who bought his dream home in Brighton said he was 'sold a lie' - because he didn't realise it was in an area of town popular with students.
David Mead (Photo credit: Matthew Newby/SWNS)David Mead (Photo credit: Matthew Newby/SWNS)
David Mead (Photo credit: Matthew Newby/SWNS)

David Mead, 61, said he has had ‘countless’ sleepless nights from the ‘raucous’ events - and was ‘threatened in the street’ for speaking up.

The marketing director moved to the Upper Lewes Road area of Brighton three years ago to pursue his dream of living in the ‘idyllic’ seafront city.

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But he was ‘sold a lie’ - after discovering his house was in a majority student area - leaving him and his partner despairing.

David said: “The sounds are beyond anything I have experienced in my whole life, it makes you so miserable - it’s relentless.

“Parties roll on from 10pm to 6am - I can only hear the bass - they have a marvellous time, I'm sure.”

He reached a boiling point when, after an eight hour ‘disco party’, he approached his neighbour to call it a night.

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David said: “I was forced to give up control, I was threatened in the street - my health was definitely in danger.

"People were fighting in the streets and there were hundreds of people - they had advertised the party on Facebook.

“I'm forced to take a side road to the house now, I try everything I can to avoid the neighbours.

"It is the drug capital of the UK here, you can get high just walking down the street.”

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David has to wake up at 5am every morning to make sure he makes it into work on time in London.

He fears he will have to ‘abandon his dream and leave Brighton’ - despite spending £6,000 on soundproof windows and £1,000 on insulation.

He said: “My soundproofing is called 47 minus decibel, triple glazed windows - they’re three grand each.

“The students were so horrific that I reduced the size of the upstairs room by a foot, I had insulation fitted, for a grand - layer after layer.

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“And the housing agent didn’t tell us the houses were multiple occupancies, I suppose we did not do our due diligence.

“Next door, for example, is a house recently converted into eight bedrooms.”

David said although the sound has been reduced, it can still be heard in the night and often wakes next door’s baby.

He said: “You can hear, thud, thud, screaming and shouting - it shakes the house, the vibration of it.

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“There is nobody else I can turn to and the council refuses to help.

“I know someone there who is paid an £88,000 salary to do nothing - yet they say they have no money to help us.

“When I call the police they say that because the music is inside the house they can’t help.

“People are only here for a year maximum before they move on, there is little to no care for a community here.”

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David said the council ran a noise complaint service to monitor and address trouble tenants - but it was slashed ‘due to cuts’.

Brighton and Hove City Council instead introduced a system to ‘avoid confrontation’ - that calls on residents to make reports after the event.

A spokesman said: “Historically, Mr Mead has made a number of complaints about noise from various premises in Upper Lewes Road.

“In the latest instance, Mr Mead reported his complaint to our Environmental Protection Team, who followed up the complaint the following week.

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“We explained how noise complaints are investigated, including the importance of completing a noise diary to gather evidence and contacting the police in relation to crime and disorder.

“Mr Mead informed us he did not want to do either of these.

“The new weekend noise service delivered by the Field Officers works to a 24-hour response rate - Mr Mead has not yet used this new out-of-hours service to report a complaint.

“Alongside a decline in the number of complaints to the Friday and Saturday night noise patrol over the last few years, there have been serious concerns raised about both the effectiveness of the service and safety of the staff.

“Stopping the noise safely and without risk on the night had become an increasing challenge, and had proved rarely successful.

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“The offer of visits from the Field Officer team the next day, including Saturdays and Sundays, allows face-to-face dialogue immediately following an incident in an environment where the impact of a disturbance can be properly discussed and, hopefully, stopped from escalating.”

Sussex Police were contacted for comment.