Ministers are facing pressure to slap fines of up to £1,000 on those blasting loud music on public transport.
The Liberal Democrats are fed up with “headphone dodgers” and believe that many passengers often feel too scared to call out the offenders, proposing new laws to preserve peace for the “quiet majority”.
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A party-conducted survey found that nearly 40% have suffered from the blare of loud music or videos while travelling. The Lib Dems are urging the Government to introduce firm regulations against this noisy nuisance.
Lisa Smart, speaking on behalf of the Home Affairs department for the Lib Dems, commented on the issue: “Far too many people dread their daily commute because of the blight of antisocial behaviour – and headphone dodgers playing loud music on buses and trains are some of the worst offenders.”
The research brought to light that over half of Britons daren’t ask fellow passengers to turn down the volume. Ms Smart reported: “Time and time again, I hear from people who say they feel too intimidated to speak up when someone is blasting music or other content from a phone or speaker,”as reported by the Mirror.
She further berated the loud listeners for having a “complete disregard for others” and proclaimed: “It’s time to take a stand for the quiet majority who just want to get from A to B in peace.”
The Liberal Democrats are pushing for an amendment to the Bus Services Bill making its way through Parliament, calling for the introduction of a new rule aimed at tackling loud music and video playback on public transport. They’re also campaigning for an update to railway bylaws to cover the inconvenience caused by such behaviour.
A Sevanta-commissioned survey that involved 2,174 adults found that 63% of women and 46% of men would feel uncomfortable addressing noisy passengers directly.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, speaking to press on Thursday, was initially not familiar with the Lib Dems’ proposal, remarking: “I’m not somebody that looks at the Lib Dems for policy ideas. I think that they have a lot of silly people there who don’t necessarily understand how things work.”
She continued, stressing that she recognises the annoyance public nuisances pose: “What I would say, though, is that nuisance is a problem. It is very, very irritating having people playing loud music and just being antisocial for all of the other passengers on public transport and more should be done around that. I don’t know whether many of the people who do those things could even afford to pay £1,000 fines, I’m not sure whether it would work, we would have to look a little bit more at that, but I’m very, very much against antisocial behaviour and I think that that’s something that we could be looking more at.”
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