Irate neighbours of London Fields station who have to put up with loud platform announcements every 15 minutes say they no longer care about planned engineering works.

The poor Overground staff who work inches away from the speakers told one man they were powerless to turn down the disembodied voice, which is controlled centrally.

But their bosses at Transport for London (TfL) have backed down following complaints from people in Mentmore Terrace – and agreed to lower the volume of the powerful messages.

There are two offending announcements. The first is about planned engineering works on the line and the second warns commuters to look out for potential terrorists.

The “aggressive” pre-recording has been booming out around the arches for a month now and is clearly audible to everyone who lives there even through double-glazed windows.

“It’s so, so loud,” one neighbour, who didn’t want to be named, told the Gazette. “It’s a very aggressive message as well.

“TfL bosses visited today [Thursday] and said they were going to think about the options, one of which is to have it re-recorded.

“Apparently the normal train announcements are made by someone called Ann and are done in a proper studio. But the two loud announcements – for planned weekend engineering and their ‘see it, say it, sorted’ campaign – are recorded by a Gary at the control room.

“There is background noise – phones ringing – and he seems to get louder as the message goes on.

“It’s frustrating someone can’t just turn a switch. Apparently they have to get in contractors to do it. It’s taken a month to get to this.”

Sure enough, TfL said it would turn down the audio after the visit by chiefs to the station.

Director of rail services Jonathan Fox said: “As part of our work to improve stations and services for customers on the West Anglia line, we have installed a new public address system at a number of stations.

“We take our responsibility to our neighbours very seriously and following this feedback we will adjust the volume to ensure these announcements do not disturb people unnecessarily, but ensure we can still keep our customers well informed and safe.”