A new nuisance policy for Bracknell Forest and West Berkshire was adopted on the 11 October 2024 which sets out what service residents and businesses can expect when they make a complaint about nuisances.
Statutory Nuisance is clearly defined within the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and many years of Common Law precedent has set out how Statutory Nuisance should be considered and enforced by Local Authorities. The purpose of the policy is to ensure that the Public Protection Partnership deals with complaints about statutory nuisance in a consistent way and that businesses and residents are clear about what they can realistically expect when they make a complaint. It also explains what complaints the authority is unable to deal with and signposts to the organisations that may be able to assist them.
The Public Protection Partnership deals with more than 10,000 service requests every year. Many of these complaints relate to domestic and commercial nuisance. The most common types of complaints include barking dogs, house alarms, noise from large events, light pollution, odours from businesses and smoke from bonfires. Many of these complaints are dealt with informally and amicably.
Councillor Iskandar Jefferies the Chairman of the Joint Public Protection Committee said “Bracknell Forest and West Berkshire Councils are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of our residents. This policy provides information on how the PPP deals both proactively and reactively to complaints of statutory nuisance and acts as a guide for those who have made or are considering making a request for this service. It also helps to signpost our residents to the appropriate organisations when the PPP is not the enforcing body for a particular type of nuisance. I welcome this ground-breaking policy which will help the PPP in continuing to protect and support residents and communities.”
You can find more information about nuisance and how to report it here: Nuisance neighbours - PPP (publicprotectionpartnership.org.uk) and here: Commercial nuisance - PPP (publicprotectionpartnership.org.uk)
Notes:
The Public Protection Partnership (PPP) is a shared service delivering Environmental Health, Licensing and Trading Standards to people and businesses on behalf of Bracknell Forest Council, and West Berkshire Council.
PPP work jointly with Wokingham Borough Council to provide a Trading Standards, Financial Investigation and Case Management Service across the three authority areas.
These services encompass a wide range of areas of responsibility from environmental protection to fair trading, food safety to animal health, housing standards to taxi licensing, and more.
