The letter writer, a senior citizen, who complained bitterly in the Jamaica Observer last week about not being able to sleep because of terrible night noise, has our wholehearted sympathy.

After the excitement of 1997 when the Noise Abatement Act, popularly called the Night Noise Act, was promulgated, the law has been more honoured in the breach than in the observance, if we may borrow from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

The entertainment sector has never embraced this law, believing it to be a big hindrance to its nocturnal money-making activities and never stopping long enough to care about the impact of night noise on people who need to sleep.

It is noteworthy that when the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) trots out the crime figures, breaches of the Noise Abatement Act are ignored because, presumably, it is not important enough to make the list.

And no wonder, because the city father himself, Mayor of Kingston Senator Councillor Delroy Williams, has no belief in the legislation or its purpose to provide the basis for people who need rest to get it.

Exactly one year ago today Mayor Williams, addressing a meeting of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation, made a strong call for a review of the Noise Abatement Act “to encourage more investment and bring greater order to the sector”.

Couching his desires in language meant to hide his real intent, the mayor said then: “We believe that there ought to be far greater order and certainty in that segment that deals with events and events promotion… And so we believe that the Noise Abatement Act ought to be reviewed and reviewed in a manner that takes into consideration all the views of stakeholders [and] must include the municipality,” he added.

Under the Act, permission must be sought to provide music for entertainment in a public space, in circumstances where such music is likely to disturb people occupying or residing in any private premises within the vicinity, by a written application to the relevant superintendent of police, no later than 10 clear days before the proposed event.

In accordance with the law, no person ought to sing, play a musical or noisy instrument, or operate or cause to be operated a loudspeaker, microphone or device for the amplification of sound from any private premises or public places at any time of day or night where the sound is audible within 100 metres of the source of that sound.

If it is reasonably capable of causing annoyance to people during specified hours beyond the 100-metre distance in the vicinity of any dwelling house, hospital, nursing home, infirmary, hotel or guest house, then that sound is presumed to cause an annoyance. The periods referred to are between 2:00 am and 6:00 am on Saturday and Sunday, and midnight to 6:00 am during the week.

For those opposed to the law, it is easier to pay the $15,000 fine for a first offence or up to $30,000 for a second offence. Nothing scares these serial offenders, not even the threat of forfeiture of the specified equipment used in the commission of the offence.

We would like to remind the powers that be that, according to the medical experts, chronically disturbed sleep, or too little sleep, is linked to obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Jamaicans deserve to be protected by their Government.