About us

Westminster Councils' 24 hour noise team deal with a whole range of noise complaints. We can also help with drainage problems, odours, pests, and rubbish from commercial premises. There are certain complaints which we have limited powers to deal with including aircraft noise, moving traffic and poor sound insulation.

When you call

We aim to respond to telephone complaints about noise within 45 minutes, either by telephoning or by visiting you in order to investigate your noise complaint. Currently, 99.0% of complaints are responded to within 45 minutes. 

You may be required to act as a witness giving evidence in court. It would therefore be useful for you to maintain a diary of noisy incidents. This should include the type of noise, dates, times and duration, how it affects you and any correspondence relating to the problem.

We priortise requests for service in the following way:

• Priority one - Noise nuisance affecting several complainants, e.g. alarms, very loud parties, noisy air conditioning, dusty building works. Immediate follow up action to abate the nuisance including visit to the perpetrators, service of notice by hand is also required, if necessary, work in default and/or seizure and in accordance with health and safety procedures.
• Priority two - Random and intermittent noise with duration greater than 30 minutes with a subsequent visit to the perpetrator where appropriate and in accordance with health and safety procedures. (These could be considered higher priority if there were several complainants or the complainant was vulnerable).
• Priority three - Road works and noisy building works outside of permitted hours, with subsequent visit to the perpetrator/premises where appropriate, subject to access availability and health and safety procedures.
• Priority four - Random and intermittent noise with duration less than 30 minutes which the officers are unlikely to be able to witness e.g. banging or slamming doors and sound insulation problems.

What we can do

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.The team monitors venues which may have particular objections raised against their operation. Noise surveys are undertaken for public enquiries and court appeals in case

If a statutory nuisance is witnessed a formal notice may be served. If the person responsible does not ensure that the nuisance is stopped within the time stated in the notice, we will consider prosecution. This could lead to a fine of up to £5,000 for residential premises and up to £20,000 for commercial premises which centre on planning refusals or license applications and renewals.

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.

If we can’t help

If you have been disturbed by noise and have been unable to resolve the problem, either informally or through the noise team, then you may want to take your own further action under section 82 of the Environmental Protection Act. We have developed a guidance note on taking your own action which takes you through the how to prepare your case and the process step by step. We can also offer you support and advice if you choose to take your own action. 

Other complaints and out of hours emergencies

 Although we mainly deal with noise related complaints, we are also available out of hours to deal with any environmental health emergency. This can include:

• 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 re-housing cases
• Pest control problems
• Dust arising from building sites
• Odour and smoke complaints