Battle man’s fury over care home’s noisy cockerel: ‘It is destroying me’

Paul Curtis, 48, of Hastings Road, Battle, lives adjacent to Cedarwood House care home, where he said the cockerel resides.

He said he is only getting about two hours sleep a night due to the rooster crowing – a noise which he likened to a car alarm.

The care home insists it has taken measures to remove the cockerel, but the dispute remains.

Paul told the Observer: “I am absolutely furious – it is destroying me. If you imagine being woken up every single night – it is bad, you can’t sleep through it.

“I was quite a fresh young man – now I have big bags under my eyes – I have had enough.”

Paul, who lives with his mother, said he used to work at the care home when his parents owned it for more than a decade.

He said he has been to staff numerous times about the issue but nothing has been done.

“I have told them that it is crushing me,” he said, adding: “I am having to sleep in the day sometimes. For the last six months I haven’t had more than four hours sleep a night.”

Paul, a former teacher, said he was told by the care home that its residents enjoy the cockerel, but he argues he has never seen a resident look at it.

The 48-year-old, who says his bedroom window overlooks the rooster, said when he first went to the care home there was more than one cockerel. He said a staff member agreed that the cockerels were noisy, but no action was taken.

He said he got back in touch and spoke to a member of staff who assured him that they would make the manager aware of the situation, but this did not happen, he claimed.

After a period of time, he said he managed to speak to the manager and he was then told that all of the cockerels had been destroyed, however, he insists this was not true as one ‘cockerel had kept him up all that night’.

Paul said he felt outraged by the care home’s response. “It is outrageous,” he said, adding: “They have got 20 residents there that have Alzheimer’s – surely it is waking them up too.”

On Wednesday (February 6) Paul was arrested on suspicion of displaying threatening, abusive writing, sign or visible representation likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, but was released without charge.

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The CEO of Cedarwood House said measures had been taken to remove the cockerel after receiving the resident’s complaint.

Ty Yalmaz said: “We have taken the resident’s complaint to heart and have taken action. Because of their complaint we had six of the cockerels put down, and the one left has been moved to a farm nearby.

“We have had to report the matter to the police to help protect our staff, who are really concerned.

“We have wildlife in all of our dementia care homes for the wellbeing of our residents, as it is interaction for them going outside. We have had no complaints from residents or their families.

“When you are not doing something wrong and being accused of doing something wrong, what can you do? We hope this can get resolved.”

A Rother District Council spokesman confirmed the council was looking into the complaint.

They added: “We always encourage neighbours to try and amicably and informally resolve issues over noise nuisance between themselves or use our free mediation service provided by Hastings and Rother Mediation. If these informal ways of resolving the problem are not successful, we will investigate.

“While we do have powers in some cases to take action, we only have limited resources to devote to this issue and have to focus these on the most serious cases and those where there is sufficient evidence to take further action.”