- Children were reportedly in tears after the alarm was triggered
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A disgruntled neighbour who took to sounding a siren to cover up the noise of pre-school children playing in the playground has been roundly criticised.
The neighbour, who has been compared to Victor Meldrew, the grumpy protagonist of BBC One sitcom Foot In The Grave, lives near Epiphany Nursery School in Bournemouth, Dorset.
They first put up a sign on top of their garden fence overlooking the site, saying “Respect our neighbours, keep the noise down”.
But the angry resident has since started sounding the discordant siren sound several times this summer.
The alarm is said to have gone off every morning and afternoon for the past week, within a minute of the children going out to play.
At the school’s recent sports and graduation day, the music was played continuously for more than eight minutes.
The happy event was “spoiled” by the noise which left some children upset.
The school said it was “disgusted” that the neighbour had resorted to such “intimidating” tactics.
They reported the matter to Bournemouth Council and its environmental health team are investigating the matter.
Jackie Hiscox, headteacher at Epiphany Nursery School, said: “Some of the children were crying because they thought it was a fire alarm. They didn’t understand what was happening.”
“I think it’s intimidating for kids to go through that when they’re just playing. Some of our kids live in apartments and maybe don’t even have a yard.”
“We had to explain to the children that some old people don’t like noise, and then one child said, ‘We’re just playing.'”
The school added that it had moved its slide away from the house with the sign to try to reduce noise.
Video taken during the preschool sports day and graduation shows students and parents having difficulty hearing teachers due to the sound of the alarm going off.
Victoria, a mother of a child at the school, said: “Ten minutes into the match everyone in the school was honking their horns. Children aren’t particularly noisy and it’s a shame.”
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“If you buy a house behind a nursery school, what do you expect?”
Other local residents took to social media to criticise their neighbour.
Greg O’Connell said: “Why did these miserable people move to a property near a school?”
Helen Hargreaves said: “What a terrible thing to do to little children. I really hope they managed to have a great day despite these horrible people trying to ruin it for them.”
The nursery school is located within the grounds of a church and its playground is surrounded by residential properties.
A local resident said she was “horrified” that a neighbour would deliberately act to “upset young children”.
She said: “I’m at work during the day but to hear this happening is horrible.
“How horrible does a person have to be to try to upset children, how sick can you be?”
Another resident, who said he heard the sound of a siren during the week, criticised the neighbour for his “total overreaction”.
A council spokesperson said: “Our team has been made aware of a noise issue at this location and we are continuing to investigate the complaint.”
