He said: “Everything has been run the same for the last four years.

“You can get a complaint and then nothing for years and then you get a neighbour upstairs who’s just moved in over a commercial property and they then raise it to the council and the council demand you do something.

“If you want to live in complete silence, don’t live over a commercial property.

“I always work with the neighbours to rectify any problems but at the same time it’s never going to be silent.

“I live next door to a pub which creates noise, but I have to accept that.

“It used to be a nightclub open until the early hours with people smoking outside. That’s one of the reasons we took it on.

“Unfortunately someone can move in two flats upstairs and want to case a problem.

“The council don’t tell us who’s making the complaints so we don’t know which way the noise is going to cause a problem.

“My gym’s opposite the big Tesco at Hove and there’s lorries reversing down there at 5am. But because we are a local small business, we are easier to target.

“We have had a few noise complaints – two or three in the course of four years and then it goes away and then it will come back again.

“We help hundreds of people across the city get fit and active.

“I have been in the flats and the businesses and you can hear it, but it’s not that loud.”

The gym’s classes start at 6am in the morning until 10am, then it’s empty until 5pm, when classes start again until 7pm.

Councillor Liz Loughran, chair of the planning committee at Brighton & Hove City Council, said: “We are currently investigating a complaint made in relation to this premises and, as such, are not able to comment in detail about an on-going investigation.

“We can, however, confirm a breach of planning condition notice was issued on 1 April, requiring the business to take steps to ensure no noise generated from the gym is audible within neighbouring properties, as per conditions of its original planning permission.”