Smoking bans and cash-strapped youngsters are all factors being blamed for the slow death of the nightclubs we know them but could it be as much to do with a lower tolerance for noise pollution?

The Guardian recently put together an article on the decline of nightclubs following news that more than half of all nightclubs in the UK have closed in the past 10 years.

The article looks at a variety of factors including the smoking ban which has significantly reduced the number of people going out to pubs as well as nightclubs and a simple lack of cash among the demographic most likely to be populating nightclubs.

However noise pollution cannot be discounted as a major reason for the decline. As one nightclub owner commented, a single noise complaint can lead to a licence being put in jeopardy. So when more people are living in city and town centre apartments than before the possibility of complaints can only increase.

Efforts to limit noise pollution include only allowing clubs to open until midnight so as not to disturb local residents and moments of calm where DJs stop playing music. All of these measures of course are extremely restrictive to nightclubs that were once open until the early hours of the following day.