Noise complaints procedure

We have a legal duty to investigate all complaints we get.

We cannot accept anonymous complaints and you must be able to tell us where the noise is coming from before we can investigate, as we might take enforcement action.

What we do when we get a complaint

We’ll log the record on an internal database and use council records to identify the potential offender(s).

We’ll then send a letter and diary sheets to you and ask that you log details of any noise for three weeks, including times and dates. If the potential offender already has an abatement notice served on them, we’ll tell them the consequences of breaching that order in the letter.

If the noise is coming from a commercial or business property, we’re more likely to visit instead of sending a letter.

Next steps

If we don’t get the diary sheets back after the three week period, or within another agreed timescale, we’ll close the case.

If we think we need to investigate more, this will be either visits during likely times of noise or we’ll arrange for you to call us when the noise is happening. We will also write to the address you complained about to tell them that we are investigating a complaint.

In some cases we might decide to install noise recording equipment instead. The complaint will go on a waiting list for equipment and you should carry on filling in diary sheets in the meantime.

If it is still happening, we’ll arrange to install noise recording equipment for a week. If they have a noise abatement notice already we’ll let them know evidence is being gathered and the consequences of breaching that order.

After a week we’ll check the recordings. If the evidence shows they are causing a problem we’ll serve an abatement notice - or consider prosecution if they already have one.

If there is no evidence of a problem we’ll let them know we won’t take formal action this time but that this might change if a complaint is made again. We’ll then close the case and let you know the outcome.