OXFORD City Council has our sympathy over the explosion of noise complaints in recent years but it cannot sit there with its hands over its ears like a ‘hear no evil’ monkey.

As we report today, the number of calls to the council’s noise abatement team has risen substantially to more than 2,000 last year.

The council blames a rise in the city’s population, but there will also be other factors, such as a greater willingness to report problems.

With up to 60 call-outs a weekend, the council is facing a huge task.

Having said that though, it seems ridiculous it only has one officer on call. This must surely change.

Councillor John Tanner says there is no extra money in the pot to deal with the problem, but the city must look at changing its operating procedures to get more manpower ready to respond at the appropriate time. You can’t allow yourself to be in a position where you are under-staffed to deal with noise at the exact time when there will be the most problems.

Oxford police would not get away with only having one bobby in the city centre at 2am on a Saturday because it is outside normal office hours.

There are eight people on the council’s rota to cover a weekend and we would suggest at least two should be on call, if not three.

There may be employment issues to deal with, but the council must solve these. Using our street wardens would not be the silliest suggestion we’ve heard.

We do not criticise the staff themselves, because they no doubt tackle the task with great professionalism.

But it is unreasonable to expect one person to deal with such a workload.

The council must respond, otherwise the complaints about lack of enforcement will only get louder.