A man called John Slumbers has been losing sleep – over late night building work.
Despite his surname, Mr Slumbers was kept awake by noise from a nearby textile firm.
Software writer Mr Slumbers, 35, of Longwood, had a disturbed night because of workmen at Wooltex UK.
The disruption last Monday night went on until 1am keeping his two children aged four and two awake.
Click below to listen to the building work noise.
Other neighbours were also roused from their beds and Mr Slumbers said: “It was ridiculous.
“We hadn’t been able to get to sleep. My daughter thought that guns were going off.
“I went across to the builders at midnight but all they said was that they had another hour of work to do.
“I couldn’t get to sleep afterwards because I was so annoyed. There were other lights on in the street that are usually off at that time so I knew other people had been affected.”
Bleary-eyed Mr Slumbers rang the company in the morning, when he said the director apologised.
According to a Wooltex UK spokesman, the builders only had authorisation to carry out building work from 7.30am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays and that these had been “communicated to the builders in writing.”
He added: “The company became aware that building work had continued into the night following phone calls from a local resident.
“We deeply regret any disturbance to our neighbours and apologise for the inconvenience.
“We are in discussions to determine the exact cause of the late work to ensure that local residents are not unduly disturbed in the future.”
Mr Slumbers was also left frustrated over the lack of a week night Kirklees Council noise reporting service.
The service runs from 9pm to 5.30am on Friday and Saturday nights and from 9pm to 3am on Bank Holiday Sundays but people can only contact the team on weekdays between 9am and 5pm.
Mr Slumbers added: “The council doesn’t have an out-of-hours noise service when you may need it. They shouldn’t be able to close at night.”
A council spokesman said weekend night-time was when the service was most needed.
The spokesman added: “If after contacting the team a resident suffers from an on-going noise issue, which officers have not been able to resolve informally, we will provide them with access to officers during the weekday evenings with the aim of gathering evidence and taking action.
“There are no set times for making noise on a construction site however we would recommend that noise is kept to a minimum wherever practicable.
“We are ,however, aware that in some cases construction work can only be done overnight, for example in an emergency or when it would cause danger or disruption to carry the work out during the day.”
