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The Council works to protect the local environment, investigating complaints about noise and pollution, monitoring air quality and contaminated land, providing Dog Wardens and dealing with any problems that are discovered or reported to us.
If you come across pollution, whether on land, in the air or in the water, please contact us on 0845 129 7777 or 01298 28400. We will generally respond to pollution complaints within three working days – sooner if the pollution problem is judged to be of a serious nature. However, not all incidents of pollution fall within our power to act.
You should keep animals and children away from the location, for their own safety. If the pollution is on your property, you must take reasonable steps to protect others that may be in the vicinity, such as footpath users.
If you are responsible for the pollution, we will advise you of your legal responsibilities, and the action we propose to take. This may include enforcement action, in which case we will also advise you of any right to appeal against our decision.
Monitoring stations have been set up to record background air quality continuously across the High Peak.
Many industrial processes require approvals from us and those approvals set strict conditions to eliminate or minimise any pollution or nuisance. All these processes are subject to regular inspection. The team also investigates complaints from members of the public about air pollution, and will take appropriate action to control any emissions that could be harmful or cause a nuisance.
We monitor nitrogen dioxide levels from roads and fine particular matter in one location
We may decide to monitor certain individual businesses, but we normally get them to do the monitoring themselves.
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The results of our nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter monitoring are available from the Environmental Health Service.
We investigate about 400 noise complaints every year. These range from domestic hi-fi equipment and barking dogs, to ongoing disturbance from major industrial processes. Where complaints are justified, we take action to remedy the problem. We give advice to householders and businesses on noise control and noise reduction, and control noise via the the development control process.
Many noise complaints are intermittent, which can make it difficult for officers to witness the problem first hand, or to resolve the complaint quickly. Sophisticated noise recording equipment is available to help us collect evidence, and is often used to assist investigations. We will seek to resolve complaints informally whenever possible, but can take legal action if officers are satisfied that a statutory nuisance exists.
To find out how you can do your bit and for more information on noise nuisance click here.
The law of Statutory Nuisance is part of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and is designed to provide a summary procedure for the remedy of a variety of unacceptable activities of a domestic and commercial nature which either put health at risk, or harm the amenity of neighbours.
The main types of domestic Statutory Nuisance are:
For a matter to be a Statutory Nuisance, it must be either:
Most domestic nuisance complaints relate to the latter element, and to be considered a statutory nuisance the following considerations must be applied:
Our Environmental Health Service is responsible for dealing with statutory nuisances, and can quite often intervene in and defuse potential problems before they deteriorate into Anti Social Behaviour or neighbour disputes.
We will adopt an informal approach in the first instance, by writing to both parties to an alleged nuisance and urging a 'common sense' solution to the problem. This is often sufficient to resolve the problem. We do not pass on the name of the person who requests this service to anyone, but will not act on 'anonymous' complaints.
Where problems persist, we will write more formally to the alleged perpetrator, and will carry out some form of noise monitoring, either by personal visits or use of recording equipment.
If the problem cannot be resolved, and we have gathered enough evidence to be satisfied that a statutory nuisance exists, an Abatement Notice can be served on the perpetrator requiring steps to be taken to stop causing a problem.
The final stage of the process is prosecution, where the perpetrator fails to comply with the terms of the Abatement Notice. We will in such cases pursue the matter in the Magistrates Court, with a view to enforcement of the conditions of the Notice, and a fine for the failure to comply.
Under new laws we have a duty to identify, inspect and, where necessary, arrange for remedial work on land which is contaminated by former industrial or waste disposal activities. A number of potentially contaminated land sites have been identified across the High Peak and, in addition to responding to requests for advice and investigating complaints, a planned programme of inspections will be undertaken. This will take many years to complete.
The person or company responsible for the contamination or, if they cannot be found, the current owner of the land, will normally be responsible for the cost of remedial work. A comprehensive Contaminated Land Strategy (541KB) was published during 2001.
A booklet, Developing land within Derbyshire - A guide to submitting applications for land that may be contaminated (1.7MB) , has been produced by Derbyshire Local Authorities as a guide to the planning process for the development of land which may be contaminated. It outlines the legal requirements placed upon land owners, consultants and builders for undertaking contaminated land investigations and risk assessments.
We try to maintain the highest standards in our public protection work. We monitor:
We report our performance in these and other areas in our Best Value Performance Plan every June, and also publish our targets for improving our performance.