HUNDREDS of complaints were recorded by the Isle of Wight Council about noisy neighbours, during the pandemic.

More people caused their neighbours a headache during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, than in the year before.

The council recorded 475 noise complaints linked to neighbours between April 2020 and March this year, according to new figures.

The number of complaints rose from 445 the year before — a seven per cent increase — as people were confined to their homes for sustained periods of lockdown.

A Freedom of Information request submitted to hundreds of local authorities by Churchill Home Insurance found nationally there was a 28 per cent rise from the previous year.

Steven Williams, from Churchill, said: "The pandemic has seen us confined to our homes which means we’ve probably all become very aware of noises around us.

"As we go into more of a ‘new normal’, many of us will carry on working from home, at least part of the time, so noisy neighbours will continue to be really disruptive.

“It may be the case that neighbours don’t realise they are being noisy, so the first step should always be speaking to them and explaining the problem.

"If that doesn’t work and they carry on, then keep a record of the type of noise and time of day and speak to your local council about raising a potential noise complaint.”

Local authorities are responsible for investigating complaints about issues that could be a statutory nuisance and have a duty to carry out inspections to detect and investigate nuisance complaints, including those concerning excessive noise.