AN unusual set of questions has sought to reveal the number of complaints made about 'bedroom noises' in Herefordshire.

Earlier this month, we revealed the hundreds of complaints made about nuisance noises and odours in Herefordshire after a freedom of information disclosure by Herefordshire Council.

That information showed that barking dogs were the most complained about issue in Herefordshire, with 834 complaints made between 2019 and 2023.

Perhaps surprisingly for a county where the economy relies so heavily on agriculture, farmers were also at the route of plenty of complaints, with 101 complaints about agricultural odours, and 12 complaints about accumulations, which can be any accumulation or deposit of matter which can cause health problems or a nuisance.

Noisy animals and birds also came under fire, with 66 noise complaints made about them over the period.

But now, Herefordshire Council has revealed in its disclosure log, an unidentified information seeker has gone one step further, with a very specific freedom of information request. 

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The request starts in relatively normal fashion, asking the total number of noise complaints recorded in Herefordshire in 2023, before asking the council to go into further detail about the nature of those complaints. 

But then the request seeks the number of complaints about barking dogs, chickens and cockerels, and sexual noise.

Herefordshire Council's response shows that a total of 653 noise complaints were received in 2023, with 172 of those relating to barking dogs and six relating to chickens and cockerels.

The council said there is no specific reporting category for sexual noise, and so a search of the 'people noise' category had been made.

"No reference to sexual noise has been reported in complaints reported under this category," the response said.

As a result, Herefordshire Council was also unable to answer the requests further questions about the nature of these particular complaints and what the authority did to tackle them.