Oldham is UK's "third most quiet town"

The rate of noise complaints in the town is one of the lowest in the country

More than a quarter of a million noise complaints were made to UK councils last year.

That’s according to new Freedom of Information data obtained by Confused.com, which looked at how many noise complaints were made to councils of the top 100 populated places in the UK.

But the figures show that Oldham has some of the "quiestest neighbours" in the UK.

There were 615 complaints of noise in Oldham, a rate of just 67 per 10,000 households.

This makes the town the third lowest in the UK in terms of objections to noisy neighbours.

Cheltenham was the UKs "most quiet" town, followed by Solihull.

The highest rate of noise complaints came from London, with 515, followed by Southampton with 476.

Manchester had the 5th highest rate of 276.

The research showed that of those who did complain, more than half (52%) went directly to their neighbour to resolve the issue, while nearly half (49%) got in touch with their local council. A third (33%) even went as far as reporting their neighbour to the police.

Jessica Willock, home insurance expert at Confused.com said: "It’s no fun living in a noisy neighbourhood, and it seems some areas across the UK are a lot worse for noise pollution than others.  And living with noisy neighbours can be really difficult to handle without creating tension.

"More often than not, a friendly conversation goes a long way. But when that fails, where to turn to next can be confusing. We’ve created a guide to understanding basic neighbour etiquette, including how best to handle noisy situations. While calling the police might seem like the best route to take, you should in fact be getting in touch with your local council."

The company has produced a guide outlining the steps to take if you want to take things further and make an official noise complaint.

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