THE Bournemouth 7s Festival sparked a flurry of noise complaints, with some residents claiming the late-night music could be heard from several miles away.

Environmental health officers were called out to the Muscliff area of Bournemouth on Sunday night to investigate complaints about loud music. There were also reports of music disturbing residents in Boscombe and Queen's Park.

One Queens Park resident said loud music from the Chapel Gate site kept him awake until the early hours of Monday morning.

“I couldn’t believe how loud it was because we are a long way from the site,” said the man, who did not wish to be named.

“It was loud, fast music and there was no way my wife and I could go to sleep. I think the council should think long and hard before granting a licence for this event again.”

The resident contacted environmental health officers who told him complaints had been received from across the borough.

Marker A is the festival site, marker B shows how far it is to Queen's Park where the noise could be heard

“There are thousands of people who live nearer than we do so it must have upset a lot of people.”

Gary Smith, an environmental health officer at Christchurch council, said he was aware of around 20 noise complaints, mainly on the Sunday night.

He said: "They were mainly from the Muscliff area of Bournemouth between midnight and 12.30am. We went out and monitored noise levels from that area and they brought the levels down slightly. That happened several times over the evening.

"The wind direction meant that people in Bournemouth were being affected. On the Saturday night, when they were playing at exactly the same volumes we didn't get any complaints."

The festival is billed as the world's biggest sports and music festival and had expanded this year to cater for more than 30,000 people across the three day bank holiday weekend.

It attracted teams from across the UK and Europe and was deemed a massive success by many of those who visited.

Festival owner Roger Woodall said: "The weekend was a huge success, we worked closely with Dorset Police and had over 150 security staff on site. It was a very safe event and a very safe environment.

"We also worked very closely with environmental health. An environmental health officer was there on the weekend and he was extremely complimentary about the way we were running things. We kept to our limits and he was very happy.

"A lot of people locally are very, very proud of the festival. It has a hugely positive impact on Bournemouth, generating £1.5million for the tourist trade. That is something we should support."