Sir – The arrival of summer means the inevitable opening of windows at night and the subsequent issues with noisy parties and music.

In previous years, when this has happened, the council’s noise pollution people have been excellent and arrived with wisely chosen words (and the threat of prosecution).

This year, however, after two consecutive nights of being kept awake by careless revellers in our street, and phoning the out-of-hours service, we were told by a very polite and embarrassed operative that nothing could be done until a number of others had also reported this, and this was now council policy.

I can’t remember being told, before the elections, that councillors intended to neglect this important community service. Is this a policy introduced by the new Labour-controlled council, and, if so, can they tell us why they think that our council tax should not be spent on this important service?

Revd Dr Andrew Teal Risinghurst