London, UK - Vicars should stand firm and should not bow to pressure to have the bells in their churches silenced, a Conservative MP has said.
Mark Pritchard, who represents The Wrekin in Shropshire, said he would fight any attempt to stop bell-ringing.
He said in some areas, people had taken the Human Rights Act "to extremes".
"There are over-eager public officials, some weak-kneed vicars and some human rights advocates... who want to silence this nation's bells," he said.
Mr Pritchard was speaking in the House of Commons in the wake of reports that environmental health officers were investigating noise from a church in the Suffolk town of Aldeburgh.
Fight
Suffolk Coastal District Council received a complaint that St Peter and Paul's Church was disturbing the peace by ringing its bells on certain Sunday afternoons.
The authority said it was duty-bound to investigate.
The tradition of bell-ringing in Aldeburgh dates back at least five centuries.
But the vicar, Rev Nigel Hartley, said churches across the UK might have to consider the implications if officials upheld the complaint.
In the Commons, Mr Pritchard pledged to fight any proposals to "silence these nation's bells that have rung out for over 400 years - long before the lawnmower".