Issue - meetings

In response to a request at a previous meeting, members will be informed of the work of the Environmental Health (Pollution) Service relating to noise and nuisance.

The frontline service report for noise and nuisance was presented to the meeting. Members welcomed the comprehensive report and the following points were noted:

·         Informal methods were always used to try to resolve issues before moving to formal measures

·         The Environmental Health service worked closely with the police and other partners in dealing with statutory nuisance to join up working as much as possible

·         There was an increasing trend of customers feeling reluctant to raise issues themselves with neighbours and looking to the council to help instead. This was often due to the fear of an adverse response

·         There had been a steady 8% increase in complaints over the previous six years

·         Compared to other local authorities in the East Midlands, a high number of noise complaints were received by HBBC. Members sought assurance that this wasn’t because we weren’t overly lenient. Members were reassured that complaints were generally resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction and that very few complaints were received about the service itself

·         Members asked that more work be undertaken to understand the reasons for the high number of nuisance complaints generally and to try to reduce this if possible.

Members thanked the team for their good work in this area.

RESOLVED – the report be noted.