An English municipality is playing the ear-piercing sound of bagpipe music in a bus station at night to drive away homeless people from sleeping there.
More than a dozen homeless men and women used to congregate by the station’s restrooms in Bournemouth, Dorset, according to local newspaper Daily Echo.
They would bed down there all night and reportedly intimidate passers-by and hurl drunken abuse at women, according to the paper.
But they’ve since moved elsewhere after the shrill sound started being pumped out over the speakers between midnight and 6:30 a.m.
“It seems to be doing the job,” one station worker told the Daily Echo. “They just cannot stand it, you try getting any sleep with that going on,” he added.
It's not known where the sleepers have gone, and the scheme has drawn criticism from some locals.
"What a daft idea -- all that will do is send them elsewhere -- these people need practical help," one said.
The initiative was introduced by Dorset Police and Bournemouth Borough Council, which said it was working hard to address issues of street anti-social behavior.
"This has included regular police patrols, proactive input from our rough sleeper team and we have been trialling the playing of music in the evenings and night time to deter rough sleeping,” a spokesman for the council told the newspaper.
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