A BROMSGROVE woman, who has suffered sleepless nights due to noise from the nearby BP garage, was told to 'move house' if she didn't like it by a member of staff.

Lowes Hill resident Kirstie, who wishes to keep her surname anonymous, said drivers have been loudly revving their engines at the Birmingham Road garage nearly every night for more than a year, forcing her to move her bedroom to the back of her house in an attempt to block the noise.

Kirstie said: "It seems to happen very regularly from nine o'clock onwards. I'm not sure if they're joy riders or what but I think they pull in there as a pit stop and park up and rev their cars and get provisions, then go out again, because there's quite a lot of speeding on the Birmingham Road.

"There's a massive forecourt at the back too so I wasn't sure if it's joy riding. We moved our bedroom into the back bedroom a year ago but during the evening you're downstairs at the front of the house so you can still hear it and I'm always hoping it's going to stop. I've just had enough - I'm fed up."

Kirstie said she has complained to police several times but only decided to take the issue to BP staff at 10.15pm last night - only to be told she should 'move house' if she didn't like it.

"I told him I've lived here for 20 years, which is more time than that garage has been there," said Kirstie. "I said I'm not prepared to move house, and he replied saying he lived near to a train station, but that was his choice, I said. It was not my choice to live next to a petrol station."

The worker then allegedly told her she should try wearing ear plugs.

A spokesman for MRH Retail, which owns and operates the site, said an area manager is now investigating the incident.

He said: "We are now trying to track down the member of staff on duty at the time this customer visited the garage to get his version of events. The customer’s description of what happened is definitely not a very sympathetic response to a complaint and this is, of course, not to be encouraged.

"However, our staff are very limited with what they can do at this time of night as the doors of the garage are often locked as a security measure and there is often only one member of staff on duty. All customers are then served through the pay window and staff are told they can’t leave the shop as this would mean opening the door at a time when burglaries are much more likely to take place. As much as we are very sympathetic with the customer’s complaint, this may be a matter to be taken up with local police."

Kirstie claims the doors were not locked and that customers were still being served inside.

Police Constable Anna Harding, who is part of the policing team for Bromsgrove St John's, said the first complaint they received about noise coming from the Birmingham Road garage was on February 26.

She said: "We're out and about on the Birmingham Road quite a lot as it's our route in and out of the station. This doesn't seem to be a big problem as we haven't had more calls so it has not yet been flagged up as an issue to follow up."