College says sorry for noise nuisance caused by Winter Ball

Oxford City Council’s Graham Jones complained on behalf of residents about music from the Saturday December 1 event at Merton College.

The St Clement’s Liberal Democrat councillor said residents as far away as Divinity Road – a mile from the college – complained about the Merton Street event.

Dr Jones said: “I told the college warden about the noise we get from thoughtless students and asked him to make sure his college gave a good example. This noise interrupted people’s sleep and went on until 2.30am.”

College warden Sir Martin Taylor wrote to Mr Jones: “It is certainly not my intention to allow Merton College to disrupt by noise or indeed any other fashion, the life of the citizens of Oxford. Certainly for the future we will be looking very carefully at the arrangements for the evening, in particular, sound levels and programming.”

He added: “I do again apologise for the disturbance that the ball caused on this occasion and do hope that this reply will give you the confidence that the college approached the question of the potential sound pollution in a responsible manner.

“You have my assurance that this will be reviewed very carefully when arrangements are being considered for our next Winter Ball in 2016 as well as for our 750th Anniversary Ball in 2014.”

Sir Martin said the power output was less than half that of the last Trinity College summer ball and the speakers less powerful than last summer’s Magdalen College ball.

Dr Jones said: “Part of the problem was low cloud – but sound engineers should be experienced enough to realise this and turn down the amps. People a mile away who lost their sleep will welcome Sir Martin’s apology – and hope his promise is heeded when Merton has its 750th anniversary ball later this year.”

It is not the first time residents in East Oxford have complained about student noise.

In November, Oxford City Council said it would investigate noise issues involving students at Oxford Brookes University.