Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence received from Members.

There were no substitute Members appointed.

To receive any declarations of interest from Members in respect of business to be transacted on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest made my Members.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 25 April 2018 and 15 May 2018 (to follow).

The Minutes of the meetings held on 25 April 2018 and 15 May 2018 were deferred to the next meeting of the Committee.

Please note that in accordance with the agreed Protocol for Public Speaking at Overview and Scrutiny, the right to speak does not apply to any items on the agenda.

The right of the public to speak does not apply to the following agenda items: Apologies, Appointment of Substitute Members, Declarations of Interest, Minutes, the Forward Plan, the Scrutiny Work Programme, any agenda item that is not accompanied by a written report and items that are exempt business.

The Democratic Services Manager advised that no members of the public had registered to speak on items on the agenda to which the public speaking protocol applied.

The following decisions were taken by the Cabinet at its meeting held on 4 June 2018in respect of recommendations from the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee:

·         Cabinet Decision on the Recommendations of the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee

It was noted that at the meeting of Cabinet held on 4 June 2018 answers were provided (CAB 5) to the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee’s recommendations made at its meetings held on 25 April (Minute No 114) and 25 May 2018 (Minute No 120).

There were no items for consideration.

(a)    Items placed on the agenda by a Member of the Committee or any individual Non-Executive Member

       Any individual Councillor may request that a matter is placed on the agenda of one of the Council's Overview and Scrutiny Committees.

       There are no items for consideration.

(b)    Call-In

       Executive Decisions may be called-in by the Chairman or Spokesperson of the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee or any three non-executive members. Call-Ins are heard by the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee unless it decides to refer the matter to the Scrutiny (Community and Regeneration) Committee.

       There are no items for consideration.

(c)    Public Petitions

       There are no items for consideration.     

There were no items for consideration.

The Democratic Services Manager presented the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions to the Committee for its consideration.

RESOLVED:   That the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions be noted.

The Democratic Services Manager presented the Scrutiny Work Programme to the Committee for its consideration.

Members requested that the following items be added to the work programme:

·        East Kent Housing be asked to attend a meeting of the Committee in September to provide an update in respect of tenant representation arrangements.

·        That local health service providers (EKHUFT and South Kent Coast CCG) be asked to attend a meeting of the Committee to discuss local health care arrangements.

RESOLVED:     That the Work Programme be noted subject to the addition of East Kent Housing and scrutiny of local health care arrangements to the work programme.

The Environmental Protection Manager will attend to answer the key questions set by the committee in respect of noise nuisance.

The committee welcomed the Environmental Protection Manager to answer the questions it had set on the issue of Noise Nuisance; written answers were provided at the meeting and any supplementary questions during the meeting were answered.

Q1.      When does noise become a nuisance?

The main piece of legislation that dealt with noise nuisance was the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Section 79(g) and 79(ga) of the Act stated

            the following matters constitute “statutory nuisances” for the purposes of the Part, that is to say –

            noise emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance

            noise that is prejudicial to health or a nuisance and is emitted from or caused by a vehicle, machinery or equipment in a street.

Prejudicial to health meant injurious, or likely to cause injury, to health.

The act did not define statutory nuisance. However it had often been described as a material interference with a person’s use or enjoyment of their land or property.

There was no specific level when noise was considered to be a statutory nuisance as a certain level of noise may have been a nuisance in a rural hamlet but not so in a busy urban area. This was stated in a landmark case on nuisance, Sturges v Bridgeman (1879) when the judge stated

            “what would be a nuisance in Belgrave Square would not necessarily be so in Bermondsey”

Several factors were therefore taken into account when deciding if noise was a statutory nuisance, e.g.

·        Reasonableness

·        Loudness

·        Duration

·        Frequency

·        Nature and locality of area

·        Time of day

·        Avoidability

·        Malicious behaviour

Q2.      Where can the guidance on what constitutes a noise nuisance be found? Is there a difference for noise in the daytime and noise at night?

There were many websites giving guidance. Some examples being:

·        https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-nuisances-how-councils-deal-with-complaints

·        https://www.noisenet.org/Noise_Enviro_stat3.htm

·        https://www.environmentalaw.org.uk/rte.asp?id=76

Day and night were considered differently as touched upon above. Noise at a certain level may not be a problem at 2pm in the afternoon but could cause severe disturbance at 2am.

The Environmental Protection Manager agreed to send outline of noise case law that was taken into account when considering complaints to Councillor P Jull as requested.

Q3.      How do you complain about noise disturbances at night?

Complaints could be reported online or by phone. A case file was then opened and, if necessary, diary sheets sent out. If the noise occurred regularly at night access could be given to the Council’s out of hours (OOH) noise service which operated on Fridays and Saturdays between 8pm and 3am. The service also operated at the same time on a Sunday if the following Monday was a public holiday. Only callers with a reference number could access the service. Alternatively if 3 independent calls were made about the same noise source the matter would be passed to the noise officer. Officers may also carry out proactive OOH visits in liaison with complainants.

Officers were only available during the OOH times as had been previously mentioned. Any complainants phoning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.