Action against loud noises
A loud noise or noise nuisance must be gross, persistent, regular and likely to interfere with the reasonable enjoyment of your home to be classed as a nuisance.
We will investigate all complaints about excessive noise but we can only take action if the noise is considered to be a statutory nuisance.
Fireworks
Fireworks are usually enjoyed in the latter months of the year for religious and traditional festivities. It must be noted however that fireworks should not be set off between 11pm and 7am, except for:
- Bonfire Night (5th November), when the cut-off is midnight (12am) or
- New Year’s Eve (31st December), Diwali and Chinese New Year, when the cut-off is 1am.
Keeping a noise diary
A noise diary is a document on which you can record details of the noise(s) disturbing you. It contains entries for the time, description and the effect the noise has had on you.
You will need to maintain a noise diary for two weeks or until it is full (whichever comes first).
The licence and enforcement team requires noise diary sheets to be submitted before they can begin investigating a complaint.
If a noise complaint is received without accompanying diary sheets the community safety team will send a reminder to the complainant after four weeks.
If diary sheets are not received two weeks after the reminder has been sent out the complainant’s case will be closed.
Before you start
To report a noise nuisance you will need:
- information about what the noise nuisance is
- information on the occurrences of the noise such as time patterns
- details of where the noise nuisance is coming from
Noise nuisances at night or weekends or bank holidays
Unfortunately we do not provide an out of hours noise service and so one-off issues such as alarms or parties cannot be dealt with at night time.
All out of hours noise complaints can be reported online and we will log them the next working day.
Criminal offence
If the reported noise is deemed to be a statutory nuisance the community safety team can serve an abatement notice on the noisemaker.
Failure to comply with the notice after that time is a criminal offence that can lead to a prosecution.
If the community safety team cannot gather enough evidence to determine a statutory nuisance, or cannot take your case to court for other reasons, you can deal with the matter privately and take your case directly to the Magistrates' Court.