A NOISY neighbour who blasted out Madonna tracks from her terraced home has had her stereo confiscated.

Residents living near Tracey Kirby's Cliff Street house in Rishton have been plagued by her loud music for the past two years, Hyndburn Council said.

Hyndburn Council's Night-time Noise Nuisance Team eventually decided to take action after receiving a number of complaints, including one from a 93-year-old woman and a young mother with a baby.

However Kirby has already got a new hi-fi as the seizure order did not prevent her from getting a replacement.

She has pledged to keep the noise down, but neighbours are fearing the worse.

Next-door neighbour Dave Schofield, 33, said: "It's just a complete nightmare. She's got another stereo already and she's still playing music and still having her friends round.

"Things have got better since they took her stereo. If she starts playing loudly again we'll just have to call the police and the council back in."

Kirby was served with a noise abatement notice by the council in October 2006 after residents' noise diaries' showed she had continually pumped up the volume on rap music and Madonna songs.

It has taken over six months for the council to be able to obtain warrants and a forfeiture order to enter the premises, take the stereo and dispose of it.

The equipment has just been seized and will be passed on to a local charity.

But Kirby said she had already borrowed a new little stereo' and CDs.

She said "I'll have to keep the noise down because I don't want this to happen again.

"They had threatened to do it, but I didn't know they were being serious. I suppose I had been noisy but it was not all down to me. Other people came round and made a noise but it was me who got the blame because I live here."

Coun Peter Clarke, environmental protection portfolio holder, said that the court orders did not prevent Kirby from getting a new stereo.

He said: "If she uses it responsibly then we cannot take it from her, but if she starts to be a nuisance to her neighbours once more then the process will start again and we will confiscate the equipment.

"This shows that the council will not tolerate this kind of behaviour and we will use all of our powers to protect residents in the borough."