A man has been fined after his noisy pet cockerel subjected neighbours in a quiet street to “torture” by repeatedly crowing as early as 3am.
Harold Brown, 80, was hauled into court over the “nuisance” bird, which was recorded crowing once a minute for an hour and a half by environmental health officials after residents complained of the continual “cock-a-doodle-do” sound.
Brown claimed in court that the noise was more of a “croak” than a traditional cockerel’s crow, but six of his neighbours in the residential cul-de-sac on the edge of Hampshire’s New Forest complained.
They told Southampton magistrates court they had had to avoid parts of their house to get away from the “discernible” and “significant” squawking that would occur almost every morning.
Brown, who represented himself during the proceedings, disputed the evidence and said there was a “conspiracy” from both residents and the New Forest district council against him.
He was handed a £200 fine after a district judge found him guilty of failing to comply with an abatement notice to keep the noise down.
Opening the case, the prosecutor Syan Ventom said the “nuisance” occurred at Brown’s home address in Calmore.
In October 2022, the council received complaints from a number of “different sources” who alleged the cockerel kept by Brown was “crowing regularly”.
The prosecutor said the council felt this “amounted to a statutory nuisance” and served an abatement notice in December 2022.
It was heard Brown did not abide by this notice but soon after, his pet cockerel died, which allowed for a “brief period of respite for neighbours”, the prosecutor said. But Ventom said that soon afterwards Brown obtained another cockerel and “the nuisance reoccurred”.
The court heard evidence from two environmental health officers who visited Brown’s address in August of last year. They recorded hearing the cockerel crow about 90 times in an hour and a half.
One neighbour, Barbara Cron, told the court she was woken up repeatedly by the noisy bird who disrupted her sleep “constantly”.
“I often suffer migraine attack and often if you’re suffering migraine attack, and you’re listening to a cockerel crowing, it’s just a form of torture,” she said.
Another neighbour, Claire Palmer, told the court she had to avoid the south side of her house to escape the noise.
Brown pleaded not guilty to one count of failing to comply with an abatement notice but was found guilty by the judge. In addition to the fine, he was ordered to pay £300 in legal costs and an £80 surcharge.
