Families living near a corner shop are considering moving house to get away from an ‘irritating and atrocious’ door chime, as they claim it is driving them ‘stir crazy’.
Isle of Wight residents are having a ding-dong with the Premier in Totland, as they claim the ‘intrusive sound’ of the shop’s chime is affecting their daily lives.
Some say the sound is like an unwanted alarm waking them up at early as 6am while others claim the sound of the door opening and closing is like ‘somebody playing the drums in the back garden at 2am’.
Ashley Yeo, 64, who lives nearby, said: ‘We understand commercial sounds have to happen. We don’t mind that.
‘What we are complaining about is the intrusive sound which affects our daily lives, between 6am and 10pm.
Pictured: Phil Yates 64, Ashley Yeo 64 and Angela Critoph 62 look at the Premier shop
The Premier in Totland has turned down the volume of the door chime since the complaints
‘What we want is for that sound to be kept within the shop so we don’t have to hear it.’
A spokesperson for the shop said he has already turned it down and he can’t ‘do any more than that’.
The shop worker added that the chime is necessary as it lets staff who may be in the back store room know when customers enter the shop.
While neighbours acknowledge that the chime has been turned down, some still maintain it’s still ‘too loud’.
They say an Environmental Health officer from the council has been down to the site with recording equipment.
Phil Yates, 64, said he was asked by the council to make note of how many times it goes off. On one day, he said it sounded 58 times in an hour.
He said: ‘It wasn’t a flow of people going in and out, it was just the door opening and closing.
‘That’s like somebody playing the drums in the back garden at 2am in the morning – you go stir crazy.’
Mr Yates, who has tinnitus, said it has driven him so ‘crazy’, he had even considered moving.
Angela Critoph, 62, said: ‘The worst bit for me is first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
Some residents claim they are considering moving house to get away from the ‘intrusive’ chime
The Isle of Wight Council confirmed the Environmental Health team has received complaints (Pictured, the inside of the corner shop)
‘I don’t know why they need to have an alert for such a small shop but that’s their choice.’
The Isle of Wight Council confirmed the Environmental Health team has received complaints.
‘They are undertaking investigations’, a spokesperson said.
The issue has sparked debate among locals, with one person writing in the comment section of the Isle of Wight County Press: ‘I live opposite the shop and it was very loud and annoying seems better now it’s been turned down.’
Another said: ’58 times in an hour, that’s excessive. Even I wouldn’t want to live by that.’
But others were less sympathetic to the residents, with one person dismissing the issue as a ‘first world problem’.