AN OMBUDSMAN caught in the crossfire of residents annoyed about noise from a shooting school has found no reason to tick off Purbeck District Council.

In April this year 15 householders in the Bere Heath and Hyde area made a joint complaint against the council over the way it allowed the Purbeck Shooting School to become a permanent fixture in 2003.

They also felt there had been a lack of noise monitoring of the school's activities and questioned a number of other alleged oversights of the council.

The complaints were made to the local government ombudsman, who looked into the matter and was supplied with a recorded tape of the clay pigeon shooting noise recorded by residents.

However, the ombudsman investigator Brian Miles concluded Purbeck council had acted properly and followed all its duties as regards to notifying residents and monitoring noise levels.

Residents claimed the council should have ensured there were more effective methods to control the level of noise from the school, such as a large earth bunding, and said the council should state how many times the school needs to break the 55db noise limit before action was taken against it.

Mr Miles has passed on the residents' concerns to the council but concluded Purbeck council had not been remiss in the way it handled the shooting school planning application or subsequent noise monitoring.

The ombudsman's report has been noted by the council.

First published: October 1