Stay calm and draft an email

We are living next to a building site.

I understand that building sites are noisy, dirty places but that doesn't mean I have to like it. 

When work started on the over-priced, under-sized flats next door I checked to find out when I could expect activity over the wall. I discovered that there is a "Considerate Contractor" document on the Council website that outlines the hours that a considerate contractor will work. These are 08:00 until 18:00 on weekdays and 08:00 until 13:00 on Saturday. 

Today, a Saturday, builders arrived on site at 07:20 and were making a racket within ten minutes. Today's jobs required heavy machinery and industrial power tools. At 17:00 the power tools were still giving us 90db as measured in our garden. This stopped us from enjoying the garden and Ethan spent quite a bit of time being angry in the garden whilst wearing ear defenders. 

The builders, however, don't appear to regard their hearing with the same respect. Nobody over the wall today was wearing ear protection. But they don't seem to have much regard for Health and Safety generally. They don't wear hi-vis jackets, hard hats, eye protection or harnesses either. 

Today they were managing RSJs including cutting them with a circular saw with sparks and tiny metal shards flying around. The operator was wearing shorts and a t-shirt without goggles and ear defenders. 

While one crane operator lifted a lump of steel up the storeys, the chap up at top receiving it was wearing neither hi-vis jacket or hard hat. 

Their health and safety is their concern but their complete disregard for my right to enjoy my outdoor space does bother me. I try hard to ignore it. I try hard to be completely OK about it, but I can't. I started the day annoyed when they turned up forty minutes early. My anger escalated as the hours beyond one o'clock passed and as the noise from over the wall continued. 

My frustration and anger achieves nothing. Writing too the contractor will achieve nothing. Writing to the Council will v achieve nothing but I'll draft an email anyway.