More about the noise team

 
 

Business plans

Targets

The noise team aims to send out 85% of our "noise service request acknowledgement" letters to the initial complainants within 72 hours.

We are currently sending out 85.7% of our letters within 72 hours.

Costs

The noise service has made a saving of £189,000 over the past two years and despite inflation, the overall cost of the service is still cheaper than it was in 2003/2004.

This £189k was a saving of 14.2% of the original budget. When inflation is taken into account the actual saving was £116,400, 8.74%.

In 2001, the team consisted of 18 officers and the cost per customer service request was £52.50. Today, there are 19 officers the cost is £57.53, an increase of 9.5% in four years. This increase also includes the cost of an additional duty manager post.

 

Noise team
  Budget  Budget   Budget
 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06
       £        £        £
Net direct expenditure1,056,700 927,0001,031,800


Service requests for 2004/05

 

Commercial  leisureDomestic  Building siteVME* in streetTotal
Complaints received  3108  8169  1338  251217933
Sources complained of  2661  6683  1240  225415289
Sources confirmed as a nuisance  189  329  188  83  789
Number of seizures  2  7  0  0  9
Notices served  189  329  188  83  789
Prosecution      33
Nuisance remedied by the local authority in default  32  36  0  42  109

*Vehicle, machinery and equipment

 

Westminster noise team's service priorities are:

Service priority

Provide a safe and well regulated environment by meeting our statutory obligations to residents, businesses and visitors.

Origins/drivers

  • Noise and Statutory Nuisance Act
  • The Environmental Protection Act 
  • The Control of Pollution Act 1974
  • Civic Renewal Priority: Order
  • Core Value: Meeting customer needs.

Context and pre 2004/05 activities

In 2003/04 the noise team:

  • dealt with around 16,000 complaints
  • issued 999 abatement notices
  • carried out work in default 112 times
  • prosecuted 21 noise offenders

Westminster is the only London borough to have been awarded the Government's Charter Mark a record four times for the noise team's work.

Westminster's noise team was the first in the country to use interactive data on hand held units.

Outputs/targets

We aim to maintain our 24 hour/365 days service tackling noise and other statutory nuisance by responding to customer requests and where necessary taking effective action.

We achieve this through working to our business plans: