Noise Nuisance

The Council is responsible for investigating complaints about noise nuisance from domestic or business premises within its area, and taking appropriate enforcement action where it finds that a nuisance exists under the law. The Council has to work within the law, government guidance and its own policies and procedures.

If the source of the noise is a property rented from a Housing Association or Council, it is possible to approach the landlord organisation about noise nuisance from its tenants. Further information on this is available in another fact sheet called “Anti-Social Behaviour”.

We can look into:

• Complaints about the way in which the Council has dealt with noise nuisance complaints made to it;
• Whether the Council has done something wrong in the way it has investigated your complaint about noise and, if so, whether this has led to additional problems for you;
• Failures to investigate a complaint of continuing noise nuisance and establish whether there was a noise problem;
• Unreasonable delays in investigating a complaint of noise nuisance;
• Failures to take enforcement action or measures to resolve the problem when it had identified that a noise nuisance problem existed;
• The Council not explaining the outcome of its investigation to you;
• Failures to take account of all relevant information available or reaching its decision based on inaccurate, incomplete or irrelevant information.

We cannot:

• Investigate complaints of noise nuisance (these can only be investigated by the Council);
• Reach a decision on whether the noise you are complaining about is a nuisance in law;
• Overrule the Council’s decision about whether the noise is a nuisance in law and the enforcement action it has taken.

If you are suffering from noise nuisance, you need to let the Council know as soon as possible, giving details of the noise and the dates and times that it occurred. The Council cannot immediately intervene and stop the noise but needs to investigate to establish the nature of the problem. It may ask you to fill in a diary to record the details of the problem as part of its investigation.

The Council may have further information about how it deals with noise complaints and/or a written enforcement policy available to you on its website. For advice on making complaints about noise nuisance, you should contact the Council’s Environmental Health Department directly.

If you are not sure whether we would be able to look into your complaint, please contact us on 0300 790 0203.

Also available in Welsh.