Noise Complaints

Many noise complaints, particularly those involving neighbours can be resolved informally – they may be completely unaware they are disturbing you.

• Let your neighbour know of the issue and how the noise is affecting you. Try either talking or writing a letter and explain the situation. 
• It is very important to attempt and resolve any issues in a calm and friendly way to preserve long term good neighbourly relations. 

When is noise a statutory nuisance?

• There is no fixed level (dB) at which noise is considered a statutory nuisance.
• The assessment includes several factors to determine how the noise affects someone's use and enjoyment of their property.
• The things that are considered include:

- Volume of noise; length of time noise continues for
- How often the noise happens
- Time of day (what is acceptable during the day differs from at night)
- Nature of the locality (you expect to hear more noise from neighbours in flats than in a detached house and the norm for a house in the country is different to that in a town
- The 'test' is based overall on what is reasonable for the ordinary person to expect.

Will not take into account:

• Where people sleep during the day and are woken up by reasonable noise from daytime activities.
• Sensitivity e.g. illness, children needing to sleep etc

If you want the Council to investigate, what will they do?

1. An officer will be appointed your case.

2. The Case Officer will contact you to discuss whether you should complete diary sheets or use the Noise App to record the disturbance/s for three weeks. 

• Diary sheets represent a statement and may be used in Court - they must therefore be accurate and truthful. The completed diary sheets must then be returned to the Council (if no diary sheets are returned after three weeks the case is closed). 
• Information on how to download and use the Noise App will be sent to you. If, you do not sign up and haven’t used the app within 21 days the case will be closed. 
   

The policy of Castle Point Borough Council is that we will not inform the subject of the complaint until a notice is served and we will not inform the subject of the complainant unless directed to do so by the Magistrates Court if a notice is appealed but, in many cases, it will be reasonably obvious.
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3. The Case Officer will assess either the returned diary sheets or the Noise App recordings online. This is to determine the extent of the disturbance and will contact you again. They will discuss the case and explain if any further action is possible.

4. The Case Officer may choose to make arrangements (these may be outside office hours) to visit you to either witness the noise nuisance or install noise recording equipment. All this is to determine if the noise is a statutory nuisance.

5. If the noise is deemed to be a statutory nuisance then the Case Officer will serve an abatement notice requiring the noise nuisance to stop.

6. If the person responsible does not stop the noise an officer must witness the breach and can take formal action in Court against the person responsible. 

Making a complaint

If you want to make a complaint you cannot remain anonymous because in order to determine if the noise is a nuisance we have to know who the noise is affecting and how it is affecting them.

If you wish to make a complaint please email environmental_health@castlepoint.gov.uk.