Darren Davies, of Bomere Heath, has been ordered to stop singing in his garden
When the sun is shining, Shropshire man Darren Davies likes nothing better than belting out a good tune in his back garden.
But his fondness for upbeat numbers including Oh What A Beautiful Morning, Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah and Everything’s Going to be Alright has landed him in hot water with the neighbours.
The 35-year-old, of Bomere Heath, near Shrewsbury, has received a letter from solicitors acting on behalf of Severnside Housing.
The letter “strongly suggests” he modifies his behaviour.
It says Mr Davies, of The Crescent, was singing on March 12 between 8am and 5pm and acts as a final warning.
Housing association bosses said the singing came just a day after he had been given an Anti-Social Behaviour Order at Shrewsbury County Court on March 11 relating to incidents involving threats and intimidation.
It prevents Mr Davies from causing a nuisance or annoyance, or behaving thr-eateningly or aggressively, to anyone living in The Crescent.
But Mr Davies’s partner, Pamela Devi, 37, said they had been caught up in a “living hell” since moving into the house in September 2009. She said her family had been subject to racist taunts and were now afraid to use their own garden.
“There is nothing offensive about singing,” said Miss Devi. “He wasn’t shou-ting or using swear words and at that time of the day everyone is up and about.
“We’ve been going through hell since we moved in here with abuse and we just don’t know what to do now.”
Sue Groom, community and neighbourhood director at Severnside Housing, said: “Severnside Housing does not tolerate anti-social behaviour in our communities.
“We are committed to taking action against perpetrators, and work closely with partner agencies including the police and the council.
“Following an incident of threats and intimidation to neighbours on March 8, Shrewsbury County Court granted an Interim Anti Social Behaviour Injunction, with power of arrest, against Mr Darren Davies.”
Lisa Drayton, of the Crescent said: “They’ve made my life a misery.”
A neighbour, who did not wish to be named, said: “It’s been that bad I’ve put my-self on a list to be transferred out.”
But another resident said Mr Davies and Miss Devi were “perfect neighbours”.
By Sam Pinnington
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It really is unbelievable the lengths that people will go. What ‘normal’ person decides to go to all the effort to complain about somebody singing!! obviously someone with plenty of time on their hands!!
Redboy
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It all depends on the quality of the singing involved, and the duration thereof.
Personally, I would complain if someone was belting out those songs, probably off-key, for the length of time stated. Bet you would too redboy after a few days.
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ABSOLOUTLY PATHETIC if you are one of the neighbours and you are reading these comment you should be ashamed….i can understand if he had status quo in concert in his garden…HOLD YOUR HEADS IN SHAME
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I’m sorry but if my neighbour sang all day in the back garden I’d probably complain. Why would anyone want to spend all day singing in their backgarden. Sounds like he’s out to annoy his neighbours.
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I’ve never heard such twoddle. Poor Darren. Perhaps Severnside Housing could focus more on nuisance Dofs/neighbours/anti-social behaviour. Unless Darren is unable to hold a note -What offence has the poor guy committed -OH yeah!! being cheerful in a Tory Run recession!!!
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Poor Darren? Rubbish. Its his poor neighbours I feel sorry for. Noisy neighbours whatever the source of the noise cause misery for many. I bet the complaint wasn’t the first attempt at resolving this issue. Well done to the residents of The Crescent for sticking up for their rights.
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To those complaining about this action, I wonder if you’ve ever had to put up with noisy neighbours from hell.
I have – twice. Believe me, noise from whatever source can be an absolute blight on quality of life.
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This is really pathetic and his neighbours want to try living next door to some of the people we have had to live next door to. I have had worse neighbours than that and they need to get a grip of themselves if thats all they have to complain about.Darren ignore them they are very sad indivuals who live a sad and lonely life ,they hate to see others happy.
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Having been at one stage subjected to the interminable barking of dogs from the house next door, sparked off by any movement the wretched animals saw from inside their walled garden, I completely understand how neighbours can suffer from continuous noise like this.
Darren Davies is best advised to take a walk up the Wrekin – or other remote place – and belt out his tunes there, as loudly as he wishes and without the possibility of disturbing neighbours.
How would he like it if his neighbours were continually noisy? Not a lot, I bet.
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well i think that’s wrong , with all that the family r putting up with , and now 2 b told they can’t sing !!!!!!!! wt this world coming 2 , wt next , tell there kids they can’t sing
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It’s a man singing in his garden for goodness sake!!!
It’s not the playing of loud music, dogs barking in all hours, late night parties etc etc!
Get a grip of yourselves with this ‘oh i’ve lived next to noisy neighbours blah blah blah’
It’s a man sounding happy singing in his garden.
Redboy
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So imagine you’re living next door to someone belting out tunes all day when the weather is nice – would you be feeling the same?
I haven’t heard his singing, so can’t comment on the volume, quality or otherwise. I can however comment on the fact that noise from inconsiderate neighbours is a very real problem – and yes, that is from personal experience “blah blah blah”. To attempt to dismiss that suggests to me that you’ve never experienced the problems it causes.
The fact that it appears to have been necessary to take this action suggests that there was an issue here, and to that end, all credit to Severnside – at last, the problem of neighbour noise of whatever type is being addressed.
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This is just 1 side of the story. I suspect there is a bit more to it than this.
Just because you have a photo some bloke looking all soppy with a letter in his hand claiming to only be singing zip-a-de-doo-dah does not mean that is what actually happened.
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Probably a little more to this than meets they eye you need the full story to really make a valid comment. The main issue here is though if he was a private tenant or home owner doing the same little could be done if anything and if they did manage to do something it would take 2-3 years.
SS are well within their rights to take him to task with what they have available, with what is in the terms of his tenancy ” you must not cause noise or nuisance to your neighbours” My advise would be tone it down and behave yourself why make life difficult and why would you wish to upset your neighbours by doing something which could be moderated or you could even go one better and join a choir I remember seeing an article the other night the police male voice choir are recruiting .
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As a resident of The Crescent i would like to sat that this actually isnt the only reason this man is getting on everyones nerves.And as for playing the race card – well done love,especially seeing as it was you that dealt it first.I will just say there is 2 sides to every story and believe me in their time here they have done far worse.Maybe he thinks making it look like its not his fault will stop him being evicted.Nice try
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Need more facts.
* Was he asked to stop at any time?
* If he was asked to stop, did he carry on regardless? (if so, that would be quite provocative)
* How loud?
* For how long?
…etc.
If he was indeed “belting out” these tunes all day, then I’m not surprised people got annoyed. One man’s music is another man’s noise, after all.
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Having worked in this area of ASB etc,I have suspisions there is more to this. There is no court in the land that would rule in favour of the complainant unless there was evidence of further complaints of noise nuisance. Evidence would have been built up over a number of months & substatiated by environmental health. There is always 2 sides to these stories!
Also asking severnside to concentrate on neighbour nuisance… If a neighbour has complained.. Is that not nuisance?.
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I wish some of the people feeling sorry for this man would pay proper attention to the details in the story.
If all those commenting above read the story properly, Mr Davies was given an order at court banning him from ‘threatening and intimidating behaviour’.
Re-red this comment from Severnside: “Following an incident of threats and intimidation to neighbours on March 8, Shrewsbury County Court granted an Interim Anti Social Behaviour Injunction, with power of arrest, against Mr Darren Davies.”
The following day, he went outside singing in his garden, which appears to me like a way of sticking his fingers up at the injunction.
Threats and intimidation people, not singing. The story appears to be a very biased slant based on a letter he got after the ‘sing-gate’ incident, reminding him to abide by the injuction. What else has he done to his neighbours for Severnside to take him to court?
You are all making assumptions on the say-so of Davies and his girlfriend/wife. They’re hardly likely to give the full details if they have been ‘threatening and intimidating’ are they?
Severnside says the order is ‘interim’ at the moment, which I assume means a full hearing will be held to apply for a proper injunction.
Will the Shropshire Star be covering that hearing so people can get the full story of what these people may have been doing to their neighbours? In the interests of proper, balanced journalism?
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Amazing, Darren singing on 12th March between 8am and 5pm, how vindictive some of his neighbors really are, I know Mr Davies and Miss Devi were in Lancashire for most of that day.
so his voice must be very very loud if some of his neighbors could hear him from that far away.
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Paul.(7)
Read the report above.
“There is nothing offensive about singing,” said Miss Devi. “He wasn’t shou-ting or using swear words and at that time of the day everyone is up and about”.
He / they may well have gone to Lancashire at some point through the day however his partner admits his singing.
Generally, look at the facts. “He’s given a Anti-Social Behaviour Order at Shrewsbury County Court on March 11 relating to incidents involving threats and intimidation” & he’s then reported for the singing on March 12th.
So, who’s going to try to convince me that the singing, loud enough to upset your nieghbours, was not in reality a tiny minded way to actually annoy them, get back at them if you like?
You can all try but you’ll fail!
n act of ignorant retaliation I’ll wager. Before I’m attacked for being a kill-joy, I believe we should all be able to do wjatever is decent & reasonalbe in our gardens & to hear someone is is singing, humming, whistleing with content over a fence is a fun sign of summer. Not some thug getting back at his neighbours. Finally, perhaps Mr Davies should join his local op society or am-dram group. Pr
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