BD, It's very much the same in my neck of the woods and they will also work on Sundays and Bank Holidays if they can get away with it. Building site radios at full volume seem to be another favourite. The worst I've experienced was a JCB digging out foundations on Rememberance Sunday at 11.00 am...

But as I'm sure you appreciate, what you describe is actually down to the council Environmental Health dept to enforce.

I always assumed that when a local council granted planning permission for a development, it would automatically send the developer a copy of the permtted working hours as laid down by Environmental Health. But no! it seems that you cannot guarantee any such working relationship between the planning department and environmental health department and hence developers/residents can blissfully plead ignorance when you politely remind them of their obligations.

Subsequently, I always keep a few hard copies of the EH working hours at hand which can then be passed on to the offenders as and when necessary. Essentially, once you've presented them with the council information, they can no longer plead ignorance.

A ex working colleague of mine used to be a councillor in one of the London Boroughs and he told me that his council tackled the problem by making the building working hours an actual written condition in the planning process. Thus planning permission was granted on the understanding that the developer would satisfy the condition and there could be no excuses for them not knowing about it.