PARENTS have been angered by a decision to cut back their youngsters' music rehearsal time - because they are too loud.

The teenagers, aged between 15 and 19, pay by the hour to practise their music at a community centre, but last week the committee reduced their playing time from five hours to one-and-a-half.

The mother of one of the musicians, Lynn Woodcock, said: "We feel quite disillusioned because our kids are using their own initiative and doing something positive with their time in an area where there is not much for teenagers to do.

"They even moved to a smaller room on the other side of the hall when someone complained about noise."

Sheila Argument, chairman of the Jubilee Hall Committee in New Marske, east Cleveland, said it had to take local residents' concerns into consideration.

"We took the decision to reduce the time the kids could practise to an hour-and-a-half because of pressure from local people," she said.

"We received a petition with ten signatures from the residents of Pear Tree Court and also from a gentleman who lives next to the hall who has attended two of our meetings who thinks the music is far too loud.

"It is a community hall and we do want all aspects of the community to be able to use it especially as it is not used during the day, but we have to take residents' concerns into consideration."

Mrs Woodcock said: "One-and-a-half-hours just isn't enough," she said. "It takes them that long to set up the drum kit and the guitars."