People in the Walsall are making an average of seven complaints a day about noise - and it could be harming their health.

Across the borough, residents lodged a total of 2,599 grievances about noise in just one year.

Public Health England, which published the data said there were a number of direct and indirect links between exposure to higher levels of noise and health and well being outcomes.

Exposure to noise can cause disturbance, particularly to sleep, and interfere with activities, leading to annoyance and increased stress.

Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that long term exposure to high levels of noise can cause direct health effects such as heart attacks and other health issues.

The number of complaints in Walsall in 2015/16 - the most recent figures available -  was 1.5 times the England average of 6.2 complaints per 1,000 people.

Walsall Town Centre
Walsall Town Centre

Elsewhere in the Black Country, Wolverhampton folk made 2,309 complaints, Dudley residents logged 1,290 and Sandwell citizens made the least, with just 933.

As well as showing the number of times people have complained about noise, the figures show how many people across the Black Country as a whole are being exposed to levels of noise linked poorer health.

This includes 118,250 people in the area in 2016 who were being exposed to road, rail and air transport noise of 55dB(A) or more during the night-time.

As well as this, 68,810 were exposed to road, rail and air transport noise of 65dB(A) or more during the day-time.

The Government's Noise Policy Statement for England aims to promote good health and a good quality of life through the effective management of noise.

Within this the policy aims to avoid significant adverse impacts on health and quality of life, mitigate and minimise adverse impacts on health and quality of life, and where possible, contribute to the improvement of health and quality of life.

Across England, there were 347,144 complaints to local authorities about noise in 2015/16, according to statistics collected by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, down from 387,547 the year before.

This works out as a rate of 6.3 complaints per 1,000 people.

The Natural Environment White Paper, published in June 2011, highlights that for many people, a sense of tranquillity contributes to their enjoyment of the natural environment.

The Government plans to work with local authorities to establish mechanisms for formally identifying and protecting urban Quiet Areas, so that people living in cities can benefit from access to areas of relative quiet for relaxation and contemplation.

In 2013, DEFRA carried out a piece of work to examine the effectiveness of policy measures since 1960 in reducing the impact of the noise problem that they were intended to address.

One of the focuses of this was noise legislation, and one of the conclusions it draws specifically from noise complaint data is that reported public
dissatisfaction with noise as expressed by complaints has risen rapidly since the introduction of the legislation in the 1960's, and complaints of domestic origin now predominate.

While the rate may have levelled-off in the last ten years they continue to run at relatively high levels and have not fallen.