About us

Noise Team Reactive

The 24 Hour Noise Team handled 17,311 customer complaints in 2011 and aim to respond to each complaint within 45 minutes. The team operates 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Currently, 99.0% of complaints are responded to within that period.

We also respond to up to 3000 email queries per annum regarding many aspects of noise pollution. 

The team specialise in dealing with the following issues:

• Loud music and parties
• Building sites and roadworks
• Prolonged ringing of burglar and car alarms
• Ventilation systems and plant noise
• Noisy neighbours and dogs
• DIY works
• Noisy vehicles, equipment or machinery in the street
• Night clubs and Licensed premises

This list is not exhaustive, and if you are suffering from any other noise problem, you should contact the Noise Team to discuss the matter.

We can take legal action on your behalf if we are satisfied that a 'statutory nuisance' is occurring, or is likely to occur or recur. This will result in an enforcement notice being served. If the person responsible for the noise allows it to continue after a notice is served, we will consider prosecuting that individual for non-compliance with the requirements of the notice.

Other complaints and out of hours emergencies

Although the Noise Team mainly deal with noise related complaints, we are also available out of hours to deal with any Environmental Health emergency. This can include the following:

• Fatal accidents, legionnaire's disease and other health and safety issues
• Food poisoning incidents, food inspections for emergency closure of premises
• Housing issues, for example drainage problems and emergency rehousing cases
• Pest control problems
• Dust arising from building sites
• Odour and smoke complaints

When you call

Our aim is to respond to all complaints about noise within 45 minutes. Once we receive your complaint at the call centre, the duty officer is paged and will contact you so that we can assess: The type of noise How loud it is When and how often it occurs

If the noise is a statutory nuisance we will serve an abatement notice requiring the noise to be stopped. Failure to comply with a notice is a serious offence and can result in prosecution and / or seizure of the equipment concerned.

You may be required to assist us and act as a witness giving evidence in court. It would therefore be useful if you were to maintain a diary of noisy incidents. This should include:

• The type on noise occurring
• The dates, times and duration of the noise problem
• How it affects you (eg can't sleep)
• Any correspondence relating to the problem

Our promise

We aim to give you the best possible service when dealing with complaints about noise. We will use the law to try to remedy the problem. We will give you clear advice in an open, polite and helpful way. We have set ourselves the following standards to ensure you get the best from us:

We will contact you within 45 minutes, either by telephone or by visiting you in order to investigate your noise complaint.

We will answer the telephone within four rings and the staff will give you their name.

We will respond to written enquiries within ten working days.

We will update you regularly and give you a summary when we close the case.

We will continually monitor and review our performance, and publish the results in council offices, in local papers and on this website

If a complaint requires a noise survey the case is passed to a technical team who are able to monitor, analyse and produce a report within approximately two weeks. This technical service allows information to be supplied to enable the noise problem to be treated and evidence to be collated for possible prosecution.

Noise Team proactive

The team monitor venues which may have particular objections raised against their operation. Manned noise surveys are undertaken for public enquiries and court appeals in cases which centre around planning refusals or licence applications and renewals.

The team is involved in setting music limiters to control music levels from nightclubs, bars and pubs where this is causing a problem to residents.

The team set limits, monitor and report on outdoor concerts and other outdoor events such as Party in the Park and Notting Hill Carnival.

Extensive noise measurements have been across the whole of Westminster to map and quantify the number of residents who are affected by high levels of noise.

The team also support and provide information to the Consultation Unit in the assessment of planning applications for example for new air conditioning plant or new entertainment venues.

If we can't help

If we can't take action on your behalf it may be because we are unable to witness the noise. In this case you can take your own legal action by complaining to the Magistrates' Court under Section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. It is not necessary to employ a solicitor and we will be able to give you written guidance on this procedure.