St Mary's Church bells have been chiming through its clock mechanism since 1896, but are now to be silenced during the night because they have been deemed "prejudicial to health".
Ashwell parish council has agreed to turn off the chimes between 11pm and 6am in order to settle a row over sleep disturbance. North Herts District Council had to investigate the bells, which ring out every 15 minutes, following complaints from some residents.
Parish council chairman Peter Long said it took the decision to silence the bells at night because "the council would issue a noise abatement notice if we didn't. Then we would probably have to appeal and we wanted to avoid wasting public money in a legal procedure." The parish council has now asked the archdiocese in St Albans if it can install a timing mechanism and has launched an appeal for help to raise the £1,900 needed to do so.
Councillor Bernard Lovewell said, "The council is not proposing to take any formal enforcement action at this time, but we are keeping a watching brief on developments."
The bells were recently out of action for 18 months whilst repair work was undertaken. They were fixed in June 2012, and some residents believe that those who complained about the bells may have moved to the village whilst the bells were silent.
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