environmental.health
@thanet.gov.uk 

Phone:

01843 577580

Fax:

01843 290906

Commercial Noise

Sometimes people at work or at home are disturbed by noise or odour that originates from commercial or industrial premises. Examples are extraction flues, machinery noise, fan noises, vehicle movements, alarms and radios. Where these occur continuously or loudly, or when they are new noises, they can be very annoying.

If you are disturbed by such a noise or odour, and are able to identify the source, try visiting the premises and speaking to the Manager. In many cases, they are not aware that there is a problem and are happy to try to resolve it.

If you are unable to do this, or it is not successful, you can ask us to investigate. Be prepared to provide;

If you want us to investigate then please contact a member of Environmental Health by filling in our
request for service form and returning it to us, or call us on 01843 577580.

What happens next?

We will send you a letter confirming receipt of the complaint and enclosing a log sheet for you to keep a short but accurate record of the noise that you are experiencing. A letter will also be sent to the person causing the complaint advising them that we are currently dealing with a complaint.

We will visit both you and the premises, and identify the cause of the problem. Sometimes resolving the problem is simple (for example, persuading the Manager to ban radios), but sometimes it is more difficult – for example where the noise is associated with the process itself. In these situations officers may take noise measurements at your property. We will give an opinion on how unreasonable, or not, the noise is. We have to take into account that in mixed residential and commercial areas a certain amount of noise should be expected.

If we consider the noise or odour unreasonable, we will attempt to identify a solution with an appropriate timescale, and try to maintain the co-operation of the management.

Where progress is slow, or co-operation not achieved, we will serve a Statutory Notice which includes our proposed resolutions and timescales. The recipient of the Notice has the right to appeal against its requirements, which may delay the outcome.

Once the Abatement Notice has been served any further occurrences of nuisance that breach the requirements of the notice could result in the matter being referred to the Legal Team to pursue a prosecution. The maximum fine upon summary conviction in a Magistrates Court is currently up to £20,000.

Data Protection & Privacy
We do not release the details of the complainant other than for specific legal reasons later in the complaint investigation and enforcement proceedings. We will never release details of the complainant without the authority of that person.