Council tenants in Edinburgh kept up by noisy neighbours could be urged to record disturbances on their phones in a bid to curb antisocial behaviour.
Having residents document incidents would help to substantiate "genuine complaints" which are often "one person’s word against another's," SNP councillor Danny Aston said.
Cllr Aston will table a motion this week calling on officials to explore working with a 'noise recording app' - which he said is already used by registered social landlords in the capital and other Scottish local authorities - as part of the investigation process.
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Speaking ahead of the full council meeting where it will be considered he said many are caused “misery" and "frustration” as a result of unresolved noise complaints.
He said the council receives a "huge" number of reports from its tenants, and believes this has risen since the start of the pandemic due to people spending more time at home.
"Most councillors will often get contacted by constituents who are on the receiving end of antisocial noise from their neighbours," he said.
"Problem neighbours can really ruin your quality of life – waking your baby up, robbing you of sleep, making it impossible to concentrate on work. It’s a miserable situation which I’ve experienced myself.
"What's frustrating is how often those complaints don't go anywhere because it's effectively just one person's word against another's."
Councillor Aston said it was "incumbent" on the council as a landlord to "look into every available tool that helps with investigating complaints of this type".
He added: "A number of housing associations operating in Edinburgh and some other councils are already making it available to their tenants."
“I’m realistic and I do not expect this to be a silver bullet.
"But it could prove crucial in many cases in providing that bit of corroboration that’s currently missing where it’s not possible to take action – whether that is enforcement or additional support for vulnerable families. For those reasons, in my view it merits serious consideration.”
If approved the motion, which will be considered by councillors on Thursday (May 4), will request a report to the housing committee evaluating the effectiveness of noise recording smartphone applications in dealing with noise complaints and potential cost implications if the council starts using it.
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