A Mid Wales couple have lost a bitter court battle with their neighbours, who claimed their crowing cockerels were keeping them up at night.

Roy and Valerie Rylands now have three weeks to prove they can keep their boisterous birds under control after losing an appeal against a noise abatement order at Welshpool Magistrates Court. The couple were ordered to pay £6,000 of £10,288 county council costs.

Magistrates said yesterday that Mr and Mrs Rylands, of Rock House, Bwlch Y Ffridd, near Newtown, had failed to address the noise problem, raised by their neighbour Roger Morgan last summer.

David Peat, chairman of magistrates, said it was a case which could have been avoided if mediation between the Rylands and Mr Morgan had taken place.

He said he was satisfied a statutory nuisance existed at the time the order was made last September. The couple now have 21 days to comply with the order.

The court had previously heard of a long-running dispute between the Rylands and the Morgans.

Mr Morgan, a coach driver from Gerynant, Bwlch Y Ffridd, first complained about the noises to Powys County Council last summer after claiming he was “too tired” to do his job.

But the Rylands claimed Mr Morgan had exaggerated the noise out of malice.

They co­uple also claimed Mr Morgan had opened his windows wider when he switched on audio equipment given him by the council to assess noise levels.

Magistrates accepted the windows had been opened or opened wider but said it was reasonable for householders to sleep with their windows open throughout the year.

Mr Peat said: “It is regrettable in a hamlet as small as Bwlch Y Ffridd that such animosity has evolved.”

He said he hoped a form of mediation would be put in place to re-establish relationships in the community.

He added the Rylands could have done more to prevent the problem from escalating and he was happy that Powys County Council had acted appropriately.

After the hearing, Mrs Rylands expressed her unhappiness with the court’s decision, saying it was a “great shame for farmers in general.”

By Anwen Evans