• TRANSPORT for London may insist that the new noise levels don’t harm hearing, (Tube drivers in go-slow protest over track screech, October 3). A specious argument.

If my ears “sing” for a few hours after enduring it, and other noise suddenly seems also unendurable, then my hearing is harmed. The noise is unacceptable not just to hearing but also stress levels.

London, as another correspondent recently pointed out, has in some areas become excruciating with noise that is excessive due to extreme house alterations day after day.

But this is not the only exaggerated noise that has developed. Contract gardeners now use really powerful electric tools at top revs instead of hand tools.

These tools could be muffled but never are and their contracts demand speed and a tidiness and continual cutting that never used to be expected.

Leaf-blowers can go on for up to two hours and sound like stone-grinders. A possible effect is that this year there have been no moths visiting my night lamp and virtually no other insects.

The birds’ dawn chorus has disappeared completely. If people work at home, are ill, or disabled there is no escape.

A few hours and these are OK where truly necessary. But every day from March to late October? Is there anything to be done?

LIZ JELLINEK
Upper Park Road, NW3