A local ice cream van owner has hit back after he was issued with a noise complaint from a resident of a street which he says the company never parks on.
John Barton, owner of Harrison’s Ices which is based in North East Lincolnshire, took to social media to share the complaint which accused him of playing ‘overly loud’ and ‘excessively long’ chimes between 6PM and 7PM.
The letter, which was sent by East Lindsay District Council on the 25th of April, stated that a complaint had been received alleging that “when the weather is nice the van is in the area nearly every evening between about 18:00 and 19:00 hours. It has been alleged the chimes are overly loud and are used excessively between the above times.”
But John has challenged the claim, stating that not only do they not play loud music, but they have never even sold ice cream on the street where the complaint is supposed to have come from.
Speaking via social media John wrote: “What has the world come to when you have people complaining about an ice cream van noise at 6pm in the afternoon.
“These people won’t ever come out to the ice cream van, they will hate seeing children happy, hate the sound of something joyfully and happy.”
The company currently has a number of vans which serve Grimsby, Cleethorpes, Louth and the surrounding area. John says he is now “seriously debating” pulling his vans from the Louth area as a result of the problem.
He continued: “My vans noise is actually low compared to some vans in the area, I know you may not think it but they are not as loud as they can be.
“Based on this and the amount of new builds in Louth at the moment currently popping up and moving Karen’s in, I’m seriously debating pulling my vans from Louth due to the headache I’ve had this week because of people moving into areas we have served for 10 years and they don’t want the noise.”
East Lindsay District Council has since said it plans to install sound detectors inside the home of the complainant.
(Image: Harrison’s Ices)
