Noise

Complaints about excessive noise are investigated by officers who can take action if the noise is considered to be a statutory nuisance.

When is noise nuisance a statutory nuisance?

Noise nuisance is covered by Part III of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This law empowers local authorities to deal with noise from fixed premises. Before action can be taken we have to be sure that the noise constitutes a statutory nuisance.

This means that we have to prove that the noise is prejudicial to health and/or is causing an unreasonable and persistent disturbance to your lifestyle. This often involves officers visiting the affected property in order to assess for nuisance.

However, we have no legal powers to deal with:

• noise from rowdy behaviour in public places
• traffic noise
• aircraft noise
• general household noise transmitted as a result of inadequate sound insulation

Our Noise Service investigates complaints about noise and operates during normal office hours and out-of-hours as follows:

• Thursday evening, 6.30pm to 2am Friday morning
• Friday night, 9pm to 5am Saturday morning
• Saturday night, 9pm to 5am Sunday morning
• Sunday evening, 6.30pm to 2am Monday morning

We can deal with noise from:

• barking dogs
• building sites
• burglar/car alarms
• noisy deliveries
• nightclubs and pubs
• noisy neighbours
• parties
• loud music from parked vehicles
• industrial processes
• noisy kitchen extract and air conditioning units
• road works
• places of worship
• open air events

These sources can be broadly categorised as Neighbourhood and Commercial noise

Neighbourhood noise

Excessive noise from neighbours can be frustrating and can cause a lot of unnecessary stress and worry. In many cases, the person making the noise is unaware that they are causing a problem and therefore the problem can be sorted out quite quickly.

Where this approach fails we can serve a notice on the offending party requiring them to abate the nuisance. If such a notice is not complied with then legal action can follow.

Commercial noise

Noise from commercial premises is often dealt with in the same way as that from a domestic premises. However, in some cases we may not need to prove a statutory nuisance where the premises holds an appropriate licence. These licences are issued in order to ensure that the disturbance caused to the general public is kept to a minimum.

We have no legal powers to deal with:

• noise from rowdy behaviour in public places
• traffic noise
• aircraft noise
• general household noise transmitted as a result of inadequate sound insulation

If you would like more information on noise problems contact us using the details on the right.

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Page updated: 14 Jul 2008