Noise

Noise is a fact of life. Nearly everything we do makes noise, whether we're talking to others, playing music, driving our cars, entertaining or just going about our daily business. However, what might be a pleasurable sound to you might be a disturbing noise to someone else. Excessive noise can reduce quality of life and in some cases cause extreme distress.
When noise becomes excessive it might amount to a statutory nuisance, which is an offence under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. In these circumstances we have a duty to investigate complaints and to take action to stop the nuisance. This role is undertaken by the Public Health and Housing Team, part of the Environmental Health and Housing Section.

We have a Policy (see below) explaining how we will investigate complaints about noise. Sometimes complaints about noise are just part of a wider problem and we work with the Police on cases where the root cause is some form of anti-social behaviour.

In addition we link closely with the our Licensing and Administration Section (see Related Content link below ) in relation to noise from licensed premises.

In order for noise to amount to a statutory nuisance it would have to be prejudicial to health or give rise to an unreasonable interference with someone’s use or enjoyment of his or her property. For instance a noise that prevents someone from using his garden may amount to a nuisance but a similar noise that can only be heard when visiting remote moorland can not.

If someone is found to be causing a statutory nuisance we may serve an abatement notice requiring him or her to stop it. If the person causing the noise breaches the notice he or she will be guilty of an offence and may be prosecuted. All such action is taken in accordance with our Enforcement Policy which can be viewed by clicking on the link below

In addition to these long-standing powers we have recently adopted the provisions of Part 6 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003. This Act gives us enhanced powers to deal with noise from licensed premises and from dwellings.

We also monitor construction activities to minimise pollution caused by noise, and in some cases we may limit the hours that construction sites are allowed to work.

Contact Us

Environmental Health and Housing Section
Community Services Department
Derbyshire Dales District Council
Town Hall
Matlock
DE4 3NN

Tel: 01629 761212
Fax: 01629 761165
email: envhealth@derbyshiredales.gov.uk  

Related documents

The following documents are in Portable Document Format (PDF). You can download the PDF software for free from the Adobe website (opens in a new window)

Also on our website