Licensing - noise
Roger Gall
Responding yesterday to another of Lord Colwyn's recent questions, the
government set out the legislative powers available to local authorities or
police to control noise at live music events, irrespective of entertainment
licensing (see Q&A below).
Ministers repeatedly claim that entertainment licensing is necessary to
control noisy live music, despite the fact that the government has no data
about complaints caused by live music, and the data they have suggests that
noisy people outside licensed premises is a far greater problem.
Dale Collins, a lawyer with Bond Pearce in Bristol
(http://www.bondpearce.com/People/110), has expertise in licensing as well
as health and safety legislation. On reading the government's reply to Lord
Colwyn, he said:
'The answer simply confirms what we said from the very beginning....the
existing legislation is sufficient to deal with both noise problems (as
detailed below) and any health and safety risks (through the health and
safety legislation). The question is therefore, why license an
entertainment which is small enough and/or occasional enough to be
adequately controlled by existing legislation?'
~ ~ ~
Lord Colwyn asked Her Majesty's Government:
In view of their concerns about potential noise nuisance at live music
events, what legislation other than entertainment licensing is available to
the police or local authorities to pre-empt potential sources of sound
nuisance and to regulate it when members of the public complain. [HL3716]
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(Lord Rooker): The Government take the issue of noise seriously, and have
given new powers to local authorities to deal with noise with the Clean
Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.
Statutory Nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990
Section 79 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (as amended) lists what
is capable of being a statutory nuisance. At Section 79(1)(g) is "noise
emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance".
Section 79 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 places a statutory duty
on local authorities to inspect their areas periodically for existing and
potential statutory nuisances, and to take reasonably practicable steps to
investigate complaints of nuisance. Once satisfied that a statutory nuisance
exists or may occur or recur, the local authority must serve an abatement
notice under Section 80 of the Act on the person responsible for the
nuisance (or the owner or occupier if the person responsible cannot be found
or the nuisance has not yet occurred).
For noise, the local authority can (under the Clean Neighbourhoods and
Environment Act 2005) choose to defer serving an abatement notice for up to
seven days in order to pursue specific alternative steps to resolve the
problem. If the noise nuisance is not abated within seven days, the
abatement notice must then be served, and it can served at any point within
that time.
A complainant can also take private action through the courts under Section
82 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The complainant must give a
minimum of three days' notice in writing of the intention to take private
action to the person who is the subject of the complaint, and must specify
the subject of the complaint. If the court agrees that a statutory nuisance
exists, or may occur or recur, it will issue an abatement notice. There is a
defence for industrial, trade and business premises of "best practicable
means". There is a defence of "reasonable excuse" for causing a statutory
nuisance or breaching an abatement notice.
Noise Act 1996 and Licensed Premises
Section 84 of and Schedule 1 to the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act
2005 amend the Noise Act 1996 so that it applies to licensed premises. The
fine upon summary conviction for exceeding the permitted level, as measured
from within the dwelling of a complainant, will be up to £5,000. The local
authority will be able to offer the option to discharge liability to
conviction with the payment within 14 days of a fixed penalty notice of
£500.
The permitted level is 34dB(A) where the underlying level does not exceed
24dB(A), or 10dB(A) above the underlying level where this exceeds 24dB(A).
This permitted level applies to both domestic and licensed premises.
Section 84 of and Schedule 1 to the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act
2005 came into force in relation to England on 1 October 2006. We have
revised the permitted noise levels and an approval for devices measuring
noise levels.
These were brought into force on 28 February 2008 following a stand-still
period required under the Technical Standards and Regulations Directive
98/34/EC.
The Noise Council's Code of Practice on Environmental Noise Control at
Concerts
The Noise Council's Code of Practice on Environmental Noise Control at
Concerts was published in 1995 and is designed to help organisers, promoters
and regulators to plan and manage the noise issues associated with such
events. It was prepared by a working party of professionals experienced in
this field and was published following a public consultation. Since then, it
has become widely used in the UK and can provide a means of enabling
successful concerts to be held while minimising the disturbance caused by
noise.
Compliance with the various provisions of the code of practice does not
confer immunity from any legal obligations, such as the statutory nuisance
regime contained within Part III of the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
It is understood that there is dialogue between the Chartered Institute of
Environmental Health and the Institute of Acoustics (both of which were
members of the Noise Council) exploring the possibility of reforming a
working party and the extent to which the code should be reviewed or
revised.
Hansard link:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldhansrd/text/80604w0003.htm#08060483000019
vjst...@googlemail.com
Where I live a large park has been granted a premises license, and
recently held a series of pop and rock concerts. Included rehearsals,
sound checks and random people playing with the mikes, residents were
subjected to ten days of booming noise and music, with a one day break
after 4 days for the erection of more stages, then 5 days more. The
license conditions allow music events to run from 10am to 10.30 at
night, any day of the week, with dBA 1 metre from noise sensitive
buildings (eg blocks of flats or offices) at 10dBA above the ambient
level. In fact they ran from 2 or 3 pm to 10.30 at night.
The ambient level where I live is usually around 55-65 dBA in the
daytime, and 45 mid evening and through the night.
They decided to allow up to 75dBA over 15 minutes. The noise levels
were monitored close to the arena, ignoring the local soundscape where
sound goes over buildings, down streets, and amplifies in squares. The
music was far louder in our street than would be heard standing
directly outside the arena perimeter boarding.
As well as my neighbours, residents over a mile away were phoning the
local Environmental help line. At least one resident could not bear
the noise levels and had to go out for hours at a time.
The repeated calls to the Noise Team produced little relief, though
they did reduce the Fat Boy Slim's bass volume one evening, and reduce
the average to 75dBA (5 minutes). The noise was still horrendous. It
was explained to residents that the park was operating within the
limits of the license conditions, that there were insufficient Noise
Officers available to visit all the areas from which high numbers of
complaints were being made and, the usual excuse every year 'the wind
is blowing'. For some reason conditions and noise estimates are made
on the basis that the air will be still, whereas the baseline should
refer to some average wind speed for the time of year.
Although licensing of events has been talked-up as giving more control
over the noise impacts, our experience is that the LA Noise Officers
have either less power, less flexibility to respond to actual
conditions and impacts, or less inclination to deal with the noise
impact on residential properties.
Once a license has been granted, quite an effort by a lot of people is
required to get a review, and I suspect that only the conditions will
be reviewed, not the actual granting of the license to a park
surrounded by a residential built-up area, through which sound bounces
from one building to another, and gets amplified in the process.
Residents have suffered from the noise from these concerts every
summer, but this year, with the premises license in place, is the
worst we have experienced. And the most impossible to deal with. We
have found it even more difficult to have any effect on the horrendous
noise levels produced by shorter seasonal events in London's West End,
where the local council has granted itself a premises license to hold
special events in an area incorporating a number of streets. Noise
officers have been known to say that they can do nothing because the
event has a license to operate at this volume, and anyway I believe
they cannot act against the council. While the council can grant
itself a premises licence it cannot enforce the statutory nuisance
regime against itself. This alone is reason to convene a working
party for revising the code of practice, but other reasons include the
fact that most UK residents live in areas with an ambient dBA high
enough to start damaging health, and it is unacceptable to expect them
to then also be exposed to hours of noise at an extra 10dBA, for hours
of the day over several days. In our crowded cities residents can,
on top of the high ambient noise, be exposed to noise from more than
one premises license at a time, or in any one day, and this fact is
not recognised in the Code. 'Balance' is taken case by case, ignoring
accumulative and overlapping effects on residents or businesses, and
there is no absolute upper noise limit, which is essential.