Britain's loudest manhole cover bangs and screeches EVERY TIME a car goes over it but council and utilities firm can't agree who should do the repair

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Britain's loudest manhole cover bangs and screeches every time a car drives over it, but the council and utilities company are at odds over who should repair it.  

The faulty cover, by the side of busy roundabout in Horsham, West Sussex, has been causing havoc for nearby residents, since it came loose in November last year.

Ruth McGeown, who can hear the constant banging from her home, first contacted West Sussex County Council about the issue in mid-January.

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Ruth McGeown, who can hear the constant banging from her home, first contacted West Sussex County Council about the issue in mid-January

The council refused to fix the cover, saying it belonged to Southern Water.

But the utilities company claim the responsibility to fix the drain belongs to the local council.

Miss McGeown said: 'I understand there's a level of bureaucracy in these sort of things but I just feel that both sides, Southern Water and the council, knew what the problem was but nobody was prepared to take responsibility for it.' 

She added Southern Water had taken more than two weeks to fix a different drain in the same road - and then told her it was the county council who were responsible for the repair.

The council then passed it back to Southern Water, who passed it back to the council.

The faulty cover has been causing havoc for nearby residents, since it came loose in November last year

Another resident David Davis described the noise as 'piercing', adding it was a 'low level annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless'.

The father-of-two added: 'This is driving us crazy. We are reporting it but they do not seem to be able to co-ordinate a response and be able to figure out who is responsible for it.'

A West Sussex County Council spokesman said: 'We are just waiting on our contractor to give us a date to schedule when the repair work gets done.' 

A spokesman for Southern Water said the manhole cover was the responsibility of the county council.

The noise every time a car drives over the manhole cover, by the side of busy roundabout in Horsham, West Sussex, is described as 'piercing'

•  Further to publication of this article, we were contacted by West Sussex County Council who confirmed that the manhole had been fixed on 11 March 2015.