NOISY neighbours beware – the folks next door can now digitally measure and report exactly how much of a nuisance your racket is creating.
A new feature launched this week on the council's My Croydon app enables users to take and report a decibel reading of noise.
The feature is believed to be the first of its kind in the country.
Mark Watson, cabinet member for safety and justice, said the app would make it easier for residents to report noise complaints and for the council to respond.
"I live in a densely packed area so I'm certainly aware that noise is an issue," he said.
"I just thought it would be very useful for people to people if they could get some sort of measurement of what is a nuisance and what is not a nuisance, that's where the idea for the app came from."
The app, developed in-house by the council, also differentiates between times of day, to distinguish when noises will be more of a nuisance – like in the middle of the night.
The council has legal powers to deal with unreasonable noise, including music, parties, alarms, construction and DIY, and receives about 4,000 noise complaints a year.
Cllr Watson said he thought the new feature wouldn't necessarily lead to an increase or decrease in complaints, but it had the potential to help prosecutions.
"I think the quality of the reporting will go up and we will be able to deal with the reports a lot better.
"We won't necessarily be able to use the app in prosecutions obviously because we'd need our own evidence as well.
"But if people can keep a record of the noise and a record of the loudness of the noise, then that will aid us in the prosecution further down the line."
The My Croydon app can be downloaded to smartphones or tablets from the Google Play store or Apple's App store.
The council has said it will welcome any feedback from users of the app, particularly those using the new noise reporting feature.
E-mail myaccount@croydon. gov.uk
