Beech police attend 55 noise incidents over two-month period

Operation Beech, the police noise patrol paid for by the University of Bristol, responded to 55 incidents between 13 January 2021 and 17 March.

Of the total, 49 incidents related to noise at private addresses, 4 concerned noise in university halls and 2 were at addresses whose occupants were found not to be UoB students.

There were 28 Operation Beech shifts on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings between the two dates, so the total averages almost two incidents per shift. However, there were wide variations—6 shifts received no complaints from the public whereas, at the other end of the scale, the largest number of complaints in one shift was 5.

Some of the reports made to police also mentioned possible Covid breaches, according to PC Sian Harris, the officer assigned to the university beat, who compiles the figures.

She said: "In the majority of cases, no Covid breaches were found. Where Covid breaches were discovered, officers dealt with these with a combination of words of advice, Covid warnings or Covid fixed penalty notices."

Operation Beech is on duty from 8pm to 2am on selected nights. Residents disturbed by a house party or street noise believed to be caused by UoB students can contact the patrol by texting 07773 816248 (include the street name and house number).

Details of incidents are passed to the university, which may take disciplinary action against students found to be in breach of its conduct rules. These stipulate that students should not disturb neighbours "at any time of day or night".

Beech is due to operate on April 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 14, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24, 28 and 30, according to the UoB website: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/accommodation/community/complaints.html.