NEARLY 450 complaints have been made against noisy neighbours across Worcester over an 18-month period, it has emerged.

A new report on enforcement activity across the city has revealed the pressures council workers face in trying to keep the peace.

Worcestershire Regulatory Services, which investigates issues like noise, pollution, animal welfare and dodgy restaurants, has published a new report analysing the state of play.

In the 18-month period up to the end of September 2015 it was called out to noise concerns 449 times in the city.

That includes 182 call-outs in the first year and 267 during the following six months alone, a serious spike.

Stray dogs also took the brunt of a significant portion of the workload, with 348 strays recorded over the 18-month timeframe.

Workers have also investigated 61 reports of smoke, fumes or gas around Worcester and 122 cases of noise at commercial premises such as warehouses and shops.

They have also received 22 complaints of nasty smells around the city.

Worcestershire Regulatory Services operates the service on behalf of the city council under a contract, and also examines food hygiene.

Helen Cameron, from the group, says between April and September 169 city food premises were visited to make sure they are reaching the right standards.

"It's been a fairly good year or so in Worcester and all the data we are collecting shows how much activity we are getting through," she said.

"A lot of work is going on within the service and when you look at food hygiene, for example, it's very fluid as a lot of businesses come and go."

The report's data has been welcomed by the city council, which keeps an overview of the situation.

Councillor Lucy Hodgson, who sits in the cabinet, said: "It's an interesting and comprehensive report."

With the noise pollution, often a warning from a regulatory services officer leads to the problem being solved.

The service does have special abatement equipment it can use to monitor any noise pollution, and it can take legal action if people breach EU limits, although that is extremely rare.

Your Worcester News revealed last month how the county council is taking the animal welfare and Trading Standards functions back under its wing due to concern that cuts to the regulatory services budget have gone too far.

The service is joint-funded by Worcestershire's councils and operates across the county.