Brighton and Hove councillors probe 'noisy party houses'

Houses let out to groups for stag and hen weekends are to be the subject of a council investigation amid complaints about noise and anti-social behaviour.

Brighton and Hove City Council has set up a cross-party panel to look into the issue of the "party houses".

There are about 300 in the city, with concerns about the problems they cause most evident in the Queen's Park area.

Chair of the panel Geoffrey Bowden said: "We don't want to be killjoys... but there are responsibilities."

The councillor said the properties were houses "which sit cheek by jowl with families which live there all the time".

'Decadent weekend'

"There are some really superb operators, and they do certainly take care

"We need to bottom-out whether these are businesses or not, because if they are businesses then they should be paying business rates, and they should be paying for commercial waste to be taken away," Mr Bowden said.

The panel plans to gather evidence from as many people as possible, including the owners of "party houses", before reporting back to the full council.

Mr Bowden said: "People having a decadent weekend is one thing, but if you live next door and have to get up for work in the morning you might take a more hardline approach."