:sad: I saw this report on BBC News Tonight. I thought you might be interested. Its scarry that even in Scotland there are problems with pipers. They showed the young man all dressed properly and playing. I will try to find his picture and post it. From the Herald.UK

Neighbours tell schoolboy to pipe down

CAMERON SIMPSON December 09 2005
They may be our national instrument, but they are not to everyone's taste. So a teenage bagpiper has been told to stop practising outside his home because the noise is upsetting some of his neighbours.Andrew Caulfield, 13, and his mother, Elaine, have been warned they face a noise abatement order because his skirl scores two decibels above the accepted limit.Ironically, the body giving the warning, Renfrewshire Council, has asked Andrew to take part in a £30,000 initiative to encourage more youngsters to take up the pipes. Mrs Caulfield, whose family lives in the Ralston area of Paisley, said she was astonished by the local authority's threat.She said: "The council are being completely two-faced. Andrew gives up class time at school to teach kids the pipes on behalf of the council, and this is how his generosity is repaid."He also piped at the Paisley Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday and the council also had him piping Santa into the town when the Christmas lights were being turned on. All that, and then they send me a letter headed Anti-Social Behaviour saying if Andrew continues to practise at his own home we face a noise abatement order."One minute they are encouraging Andrew to show off his talents as a piper and the next they are telling him to shut up. It's disgraceful."Mrs Caulfield, a council lollipop lady, said her son had not been given a chance to appease their neighbours. She added: "We even bought him a smaller set of pipes that are not so loud, and asked the council to test them, but they wouldn't do it. They just said that even with the quieter pipes Andrew still can't practise – how can they still know that without another test?"The council decided to take action after several neighbours in Atholl Crescent signed a petition calling on Andrew to pipe down. Noise abatement officers carried out simulated tests and discovered that his playing was over the maximum allowed.Andrew said: "I am very disappointed with the council, and I wish they would come out do another test on my quieter, smaller pipes, because I just want to practise our national instrument. I love piping and not being able to play at home is very frustrating."Lorne Cousin, the piper who was chosen by Madonna to join her on an international tour, said last night he was outraged by the council's move."This is bureaucracy gone mad. The local authority should be spending our money on more important things than pursuing a young musician who is, after all, playing our national instrument."But the council said yesterday it was only carrying out its civic duty. A spokeswoman said: "We were trying to resolve a dispute among neighbours. A noise simulation of the bagpipes found them to be above the permitted level."We have not been able to test the quieter set of pipes because these would have to be undertaken from within a neighbouring property and the neighbours oppose this." One of the Caulfields' neighbours, who declined to be named, said: "When he practises I can hear it clearly through the wall. When I'm at home I don't expect the peace and quiet of my living-room to be shattered by the drone of bagpipes."

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/52219-print.shtml