To make a valid complaint to our service, the noise must be affecting you in your home or place of work. It must happen with relative frequency or be disruptive. For example being woken by loud music late at night, or being exposed to excessively loud music on a regular basis throughout the day. We can investigate noise from domestic and commercial properties.
A sound being audible in your home does not automatically make it a nuisance. We cannot investigate noisy children playing or crying or people’s day to day living noise such as walking about in their homes, entering and leaving the premises, flushing the toilet or arguments.
There are other types of noise that we cannot investigate although they may affect certain people. For example, noise from the public highway is dealt with by the council’s highways department and noise in the street is a public disorder act which should be dealt with by the police. Links to some useful contacts are given on this page.
Important: If you live in an ALMO or housing association property you should first tell your housing officer about your problems. Tenants of these properties may have signed a tenancy agreement which they are breaching if they cause nuisance to neighbouring tenants. This applies to private rented properties as well.
If you suspect domestic abuse is occurring you should tell the police.
If you are feeling threatened or harassed by someone’s behaviour or have suffered physical or verbal abuse from them you should contact the police and the Anti Social Behaviour Unit.
If you wish you can also take your own action. You can download a document giving you further information from this page.