Cul-de-sac residents plagued by mysterious noise

People living in a normally quiet cul-de-sac say they are at a loss to work out what is causing an "annoying" sound that is bothering them day and night.

"It sounds like when someone starts a car and revs the engine – then it goes to a tick-over, and then bleeps and goes up," said Doug Mynard, from Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire.

The 70-year-old said the noise began about six weeks ago and could be heard every 10 minutes.

He added that although it was not keeping him awake at night, other neighbours had complained that it was having that effect on them.

"If I get up to go to the loo in the night, I can hear it. The missus says she's heard it at 2.30, 4.30am.

"It's annoying when you're trying to sit in the garden to read a book and this blooming noise goes off," he told the BBC.

He said the noise seemed to be concentrated in Brockwell, which "acts like an amphitheatre".

"I've ridden my bike around the area, and as soon as you get into the close you hear it," he added.

"The folks at number 11 can't hear it at all. I don't know how to explain it."

Jane Carr, a Liberal Democrat member of Milton Keynes City Council, said: "It's upsetting the neighbours because they just want to know what it is, so we can soften the noise."

She said council officers had visited residents beyond the cul-de sac to find out who could hear the noise.

"A few people have said, 'Yeah, we've heard noise from the crane and the building'.

"But it just seems to be one particular area that's hearing the noise on a repeated basis. If it's the crane, you'd expect it to be heard far wider," she said.

Her money is on a hot tub.

"We think someone may have installed a hot tub very recently because it's such an intermittent noise," she said.

"It may be as simple as the hot tub's vibrating against the side of something.

"We've had officers trying to identify where the noise is coming from and it's just really weird. We want an answer."

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.