• I WRITE this at night while being hit, yet again, by the frequent “clunk click” noises of loose, rocking, gratings of utility duct coverings in Wardour Street.

If someone bombards us with sticks and stones, bullets or arrows, intentionally or by accident, we are being assaulted and harmed.

There are laws against such assaults and perpetrators can be prosecuted. If someone merely shouts certain forms of abuse, the law may step in.

The “clunk clicks” of loose gratings are also assaults, causing well-attested harms, sleepless nights, blood pressure increases, intrusions on thought and so forth. Yet curiously there seems to be little protection by means of the law.

True, Westminster City Council does its best. How often in the still of the night, as well as during the day, do we suffer those “clunk clicks”?

If the utility companies had any interest in the wellbeing of local people, customers even, they could, of course, deploy covers with some form of noise suppression, even a form of Blu Tack may do it.

Let’s add more examples of unnecessary auditory batterings. How often in the still of the night, as well as during the day, do we suffer the repeated whinings of burglar alarms and car alarms?

We know full well that such alarms are unnecessary for, apart from the irritations caused to those nearby, no one seeks to discover whether a burglary is taking place. No police turn out, no owners dash to protect their property.

We should add yet more unnecessary noise pollutions, from super cars revving to construction work. At least the city council seeks to restrict noisy construction and road works to the daytime hours, though, of course, some construction companies ignore those restrictions.

Typically, there are no good excuses for the loud daytime screechings of drills, sanding machines et al, for much of the work could be done with noise suppression, lasers or similar.

I wonder how many more years of noise injuries to health will it take before governments and businesses deign to care about… people?

PETER CAVE, W1