RESIDENTS who were kept awake all night by noise coming from Basingstoke Town football stadium are calling on the club to explain why the problem took nearly 10 hours to resolve.

As previously reported, Basingstoke Town Football Club apologised after numerous reports were made of noise coming from the stadium tannoy from 10pm on Saturday until Sunday morning.

Simon Wilding, of Kelvin Hill, South Ham, described the noise as “like someone was dragging an empty greenhouse across the street”.

The 39-year-old father-of-four added: “Following the game the tannoy intermittently blasted out overnight on what can only be described as scanning for a radio station. From around 10pm right the way through to around 4am the silence of the night was broken randomly by noise coming from the stadium.”

Mr Wilding, who works in business development for Volkswagen, called police on 101 and was told that the force hads received multiple complaints, including from residents as far away as Winklebury, but had not been able to contact the key holder of the club, in Western Way, to stop the noise.

He said: “I appreciate that living so close to the stadium we get noise and light pollution which we all tolerate, but this went beyond the reasonable level. Having spoken to many residents around the area we all had a terrible night’s sleep.”

Leighton Oliver, from Mansfield Road, South Ham, said the club was contacted at 10.30pm, and a member of staff said the matter was being dealt with.

But staff then left for the evening and the noise continued throughout the night.

He said: “It was like having a radio playing next to your bed.”

The 41-year-old father-of-six is calling on the club to explain why the problem was not sorted until 8am the next day.

He said: “For a football club that prides itself on working in the community how can the club make a decision that a key holder wouldn’t attend?”

The self employed builder could hear music playing from the club every time a car drove past, and said: “The noise was so loud it could be heard in Cranbourne and Winklebury. The club, police and council were all contacted but the music was stopped at 8am after promises of being dealt with at 11pm. Local residents have not actually slept all night.”

He added: “I want to know how it was allowed to go on for so long and what measures are being put in place for it not to happen again and how are the club going to apologise to the community? Not once have they said why it wasn’t dealt with sooner.”

Karen Lawson, also of Mansfield Road, described the disturbance as “hell” and said: “Why are they not explaining why they didn’t act on the initial two phone calls when the club was still open? They just locked up, went home and left us residents to suffer until 8am.”

She added: “How are the club getting away with not answering the question about when I called they said it would be stopped in a minute. All these poor residents went through a night of hell. How can they get away with not acting on it? They have said sorry but they aren’t saying why it wasn’t acted on sooner.”

Police confirmed they received reports of the noise disturbance, and an officer attended but was unable to resolve the issue.

Katie Oliver, office manager for Basingstoke Town FC, apologised for the disturbance.

She explained: “It appears the wireless receiver we have in the press box was being picked up by anyone driving past the ground who has a device in their car which enables such reception to be picked up, hence, noise, music etc. This wireless receiver has been there for a number of years without any problems.”

She confirmed that the club had removed the wireless receiver to ensure it did not happen again, adding: “Unfortunately the main key holders were away and the bar staff do not have a set of keys. The back-up key holders were contacted at 2am and asked to resolve the matter Sunday morning by the police.”

Asked why the noise was not stopped until 8am, she said: “Police were happy for us to check on Sunday morning.”

A statement from the borough council said six out-of-hours calls were received about the noise, adding: “Details were passed on to the environmental health standby officer. He liaised with the police, who had also received a number of calls.

“We established that the police had contacted the key holder for the stadium, who we understand could not attend the stadium until the following morning. The standby officer followed this up on Sunday morning and afternoon at the club, to ensure that issue had been dealt with.

"We will be speaking to the football club to clarify what exactly happened and the safeguards and procedures they have in place to ensure a situation like this doesn’t happen again.”