Families living next to derelict former BT offices say a relentless alarm from the building is making their lives a misery
- Locals claim the alarm wakes them up and constantly interferes with their work
Families living next to derelict former BT offices have been left furious by a relentless alarm from the building which is making their lives a misery.
Residents living near the Becket House offices in the cathedral city of Canterbury claim the loud alarm wakes them up at night and constantly interferes with their work during the day.
Locals even say the alarm, which has been going off intermittently for as long as 16 days, also makes them anxious about when it will begin again after it finally stops for a period.
The former offices, located on Dover Road in Canterbury, Kent, were vacated by broadband giant BT last year and the huge building is due to be converted into flats.
But despite being awarded planning permission, contractors have been told work cannot start until water contamination issues at the nearby Stodmarsh Nature Reserve are solved.
Tim Manning is one of the residents living near the Becket House offices in the cathedral city of Canterbury who claims a relentless alarm from the building is making their lives a misery
The former offices are located on Dover Road in Canterbury, Kent
Telereal Trillium, who owns the building, say they installed the alarm system last month following reports of an intruder.
But fed-up locals complain the alarm has been sounding unprovoked for whole days on end - including overnight, disturbing their sleep.
Tim Manning, a management consultant living next door to the building, says the alarm has now become a constant anxiety for those living in the area.
'It's really given us all a nightmare time,' he said.
'We've had it going off intermittently for 15 or 16 days, day and night, which is very frustrating because I work from home.
'If you're near a window or at night time, it's a continuous sound which is hard to filter out.
'And even when it stops, you find yourself just waiting for it to start again, so there's this constant anxiety.
'Will it go off tonight when I'm trying to sleep? Will it go off tomorrow during the conference call?
'The trouble is, we don't know who administers the site or the alarm or what to do next.'
The offices were vacated by broadband giant BT last year and the huge building is due to be converted into flats (Stock image)
Ignazio Mostallino, a finance worker who also works from home a lot, says the alarm also impacts his children's lives.
'It's been unacceptable because I work in finance for a bank and spend a lot of time on the phone,' the father-of-two explained.
'I've been on calls with the alarm going off and had people on the other end of the phone asking if everything is alright.
'Sometimes it was going off every 15 minutes and into the evenings, disturbing our children as they were trying to do their homework.'
Frustrated locals have now set up a WhatsApp group to communicate and recently complained about the noisy alarm to Canterbury City Council.
A spokesman for the authority said this week: 'We have received four complaints about a noisy alarm at Becket House.
'Our officers got in touch with the managing agent for the property and contractors were due to be contacted to be sent out to silence it.
'We hope this has resolved the issue.'
