THE sound of music is forcing residents of a Teesside town to endure sleepless nights.

A council is receiving more complaints about noise than ever - leading to a plea to music lovers to exercise restraint.

Jeff Duffield, environmental health manager with Middlesbrough Borough Council, said: "A lot of house music has a repetitive beat, which travels through a partition walls of terraced houses.

"We would just urge people to have regard to the neighbours when playing a lot of this music."

The council's noise patrol attended 1,300 complaints between April and September, last year, virtually all involved loud music. Already this winter, complaints are ten per cent up on this time last year.

Officials had to respond to nine complaints last weekend from neighbours after the music was keeping them awake.

"Complaints of noise are higher than we expected this year," said Mr Duffield.

He attributes the team's increasing workload to a combination of the word spreading about the noise patrols and falling shop prices making high quality hi-fi equipment more affordable.

He said: "High quality stereos have become a lot cheaper, and people like to have music loud. But in a terraced property it can go through the partition walls.

"In the past, systems might have cost £500. Now you can get a good quality stereo for between £40 and £50.''

The team is out patroling the town's streets every Saturday night, rotating shifts among its 14 workers.