Alarm kept village awake for 14 hours (From Stroud News and Journal)

Alarm kept village awake for 14 hours

A TV star living in Avening missed a London audition for top ITV police drama The Bill because she had been kept awake all night by a fire alarm.

The alarm in The Old Baptist Chapel flats where Lindsey Marcell lives went off just after 9pm last Tuesday night and was only stopped the next morning at 11am - 14 hours later.

Ms Marcell, who starred as interior designer Sandra Hay in the 1980s drama series Howard's Way, said: "It was a nightmare - it was so loud I couldn't hear myself speak. "I had an audition in London for The Bill the next day but couldn't get up there because I didn't get to bed until three in the morning."

Ms Marcell's, daughter Rosie stars in ITV's The Vice. The actress blamed the flat owners, Bristol-based housing association Raglan for what she described as a complete fiasco.

"What is awful is that they didn't bother to do anything about it. They could have left keys or given instructions on what to do. It was unnecessary to have gone on so long," she said.

But Raglan west area director Phillip Taylor said: "We did endeavour to bring the alarm to a halt but could not do that until 11am the following day.

"We are considering whether the fire panel should be relocated and other arrangements for access made."

He said he couldn't understand why fire and police services had refused to break-in to the alarm room despite being given permission by Raglan.

Jodie Jarvis, landlady at Avening's The Bell pub also questioned the police's refusal to force access.

She set up a makeshift tea and coffee station for emergency services and red-eyed residents and gave a bed above the pub to one of the flat's tenants.

She said: "The way it was handled was atrocious. The police could have done something."

But Gloucestershire police spokesman Kate Melmes said: "Because there was no sign of any fire or reasonable grounds for suspecting a fire taking place we had no power to force entry under the police and criminal evidence act."

In a bid to eventually get some sleep, Ms Marcell spent the night at a Cirencester Bed and Breakfast.