Noise nuisance taking toll on Soesdyke residents

The Kozy Nook Restaurant and Bar at Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara, which has been around for decades is once again in the spotlight as residents are complaining about noise nuisance. The police were called in on several occasions to no avail.
As such, one resident, who is primarily affected by the loud music said he cannot take it any longer. Nigel Gossai claimed that the business establishment has no consideration for the sick and continues to blast the music systems in the day and late into the nights.
He told Guyana Times that only recently, he was diagnosed with a brain condition and the loud music has taken a toll on his health.
“My house shakes. These people have no regards for others who live around here. As we speak, the music is so loud we can’t hear anything… the music is being played it in the open. It has been happening every day. This has been going on far too long, nobody seems to be bothered”, he stated.
According to Gossai, he would have filed a number of complaints to the police while noting that the business enterprise was once taken to court for loud and offensive music but this, he noted, has not stopped the proprietor from tuning up his volume to the highest.
“We even went to court and so forth and the result is dissatisfactory. We have a court order and these people treat the order like trash. We went to the court again and one of them was charged and it still continue.”
Efforts to make contact with the entity proved futile.
Back in 2018, the Public Security Ministry had re-enforced the “02:00 am curfew” for nightspots and other places of entertainment.
It was explained that after taking into account the effects of alcohol consumption on crime and violence – including domestic violence, traffic accidents, the unproductive capacities of the population the day after along with other attendant circumstances such as the adverse effects of the proliferation of noise nuisance – Minister Khemraj Ramjattan determined that “it is in the best interest of the country to enforce the existing laws which have mandated that these entertainment facilities to be closed at 02:00h”.
The “02:00 am closing time” is provided for in the Music and Dancing Licences (Amendment), Act Chapter 23:03, Act Number 12 of 1982.
That Act states at section 9 that: “A place, so kept or used, although so licensed as aforesaid, shall not be opened for any of the purposes aforesaid except on the days and between the hours stated on the licence: Provided that the holder of a first-class hotel licence may keep open the licensed premises for the purpose of dancing, singing, music or other public entertainment once in every week until the hour of two of the clock in the morning except on any Sunday”.
“Place” as used in Section 9 means “house, room, garden, or other place” and covers bars, clubs and restaurants as well as open spaces used for dances and entertainment purposes.