Now Brighton and Hove City Council's licensing department has granted almost every pub's application for increased hours (The Argus, September 30), its noise pollution department is going to require urgent up-grading.

At the moment, the noise patrol operates only on Fridays and Saturdays from 10pm until 3am. At any other time of the week, there is no one on duty to witness noise.

At present, with premises closing at 11pm, residents might be prepared to put up with loud music, noisy pub-leavers and general rowdiness in the knowledge it will soon cease. Besides, even on Fridays and Saturdays, it is often a moot point whether the patrol, even if called on the dot of ten, will arrive before the problem ends of its own accord at 11. So many residents don't bother.

But as from November, with pubs being granted permission to stay open until the early hours and, in many cases, permitted to have live music and other activities previously disallowed, residents are more likely to be seriously disturbed and to want to register an official complaint.

Jeanne Lepper, the licensing chairperson, claims the new laws will give residents greater protection against pubs. This can only be the case if residents can call on the support of a 24-hour, seven-day, noise-patrol service such as some other cities already enjoy.

As to the sentiments expressed by residents in the same article that "the council was there to rubber-stamp these applications", I can only concur. I live in a block of flats with a pub on the ground floor. The bass from the pub's music travels right up the building to the seventh floor. Some residents immediately above the pub sometimes cannot hear their own televisions.

Innumerable attempts, over the course of many years, to get this nuisance ameliorated have proved futile. The council received 34

letters opposing this pub's application to stay open until 5am and to have live music, dancing, karaoke and so on. Nevertheless, the application was granted.

At the very least, the city's residents are going to need a vastly improved environmental protection service to help us cope with the anticipated consequences of this misguided legislation and our council's compliant implementation of it.

-Graham Chainey, Brighton