Redbridge Council wants to hear from residents as it weighs up plans to introduce a new mobile phone app to help report noise nuisance.

The local authority launched an online consultation on November 5 in the form of a survey that Redbridge residents can take part in, centred on plans to introduce The Noise App.

It is open until January 28 next year.

The move comes as part of a bid to help the council's enforcement teams deal with noise complaints more efficiently.

The borough's community protection team currently processes more than 6,000 noise nuisance complaints a year, many of which then turn out to be unjustified or even malicious call outs.

The consultation overview elaborates: "The way that we currently process reports can mean that it is difficult to initially assess the severity of each complaint.

"Complaints can also be made in different ways and this causes duplication and needless cross-checking.

"We want to ensure that officer time is spent quickly and efficiently supporting residents who are facing the most serious issues of noise and anti-social behaviour."

The Noise App is free, and would allow residents to record their own evidence of the noise nuisance before then uploading it via the app for Redbridge enforcement officers to listen to.

It currently has an average rating of 2.8 out of five on the App Store

This would allow officers to prioritise more serious complaints, and would also cut down on the number of hours those officers spend on bogus calls.

The app would be GPS enabled, so that officers would be able to geographically pinpoint areas of highest concern.

Similar apps are already being used by other London boroughs, the council claims, and in some cases these recordings have helped achieve prosecutions.

Provisions would be made for elderly people,and those unable to use the app, although no further details have yet been released on what these provisions would be.

The consultation document concludes: "The Community Protection Team are open to improving how we deliver services to residents and believe that a system where the most severe cases are prioritised supported by the benefits of a modern system will enable officers to concentrate their resources to investigating and prosecuting the people who actions reduce residents' quality of life."