Ice cream van banned from street for ‘playing chimes for too long’
An ice cream company has been banned from a tiny street after the noise it created left a resident ‘living in constant dread’.
Lamarti’s was reported to East Suffolk Council for playing its chimes for too long and too loudly when it arrived at Ashfield Crescent in Lowestoft.
Ice cream vans can play their chimes for a maximum of 12 seconds and only when they’re stationary, according to a government code of practice.
The resident said the van ‘plays his charms for more than the statutory 12 seconds but plays them louder than the allowed 80 decibels’.
The complaint was made on March 23, the day Prime Minister Boris Johnson put the UK into its first full coronavirus lockdown.
It read: ‘The constant loud and prolonged noise is very alarming as I have sensitive hearing
‘I live in constant dread of the ice cream van driving onto the street as he not only plays the charms whilst driving onto Ashfield Crescent but continues to play them whilst parked for some considerable time.
‘I would be very grateful if you could deal with this upsetting situation as the ice cream vendor is unapproachable, he has been asked on several occasions not to frequent Ashfield Crescent but still continues to do so.
‘In the current climate it is very worrying indeed that this vendor feels it is acceptable to serve children with ice creams and other products when everybody else has been advised to practice social distancing.’
The council upheld the complaint and banned Lamarti’s, which runs a fleet of 15 vans in eastern England, from the crescent.
The business can keep its wider street trading licence under certain conditions, the BBC reported.
It must keep a written record of when and where a vehicle is trading and abide by the code of practice.
Omar Lamarti, son of owner Mohamed, said the allegations regarding its chimes were ‘false’.
He said: ‘Our chimes only go on for seven seconds and automatically stop and drivers are trained not to restart the music after they have stopped until they moved on to the next street.’
MORE : Village church bells silenced after single complaint they are ‘too noisy’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.