Noise nuisance

You can report the following:

• neighbour noise – amplified sound, loud music, loud DIY, barking dogs
• house and car alarms
• loud industrial or commercial noise, such as air conditioning and fans
• entertainment noise, such as loud music from pubs and clubs

What we're not able to deal with as a noise complaint

If you are being disturbed by noise from racing vehicles you can raise concerns with Essex Police by phoning 101.

We are not able to deal with noise from road traffic.

If you are being disturbed by 'living' noise – for example, banging and shouting from next door – you can report this as anti-social behaviour to:

• Essex Police, if the noise is from a private property – phone 101
• our tenancy services, if the noise is from a council-owned property – go to anti-social behaviour

We are not able to deal with 'living' noise as an environmental noise complaint.

Before you complain

Before making a complaint, try to resolve the problem by talking to the person responsible at a time when you don’t feel upset by the noise and when you believe it is safe to do so.

It may be helpful to keep a diary of noise 'events', noting the time and date and the type of noise nuisance caused. You can use this to show the person responsible what the problem is.

If speaking with the person and trying to resolve the problem in an informal way doesn’t work, you can report the noise to us.

Make a complaint

Report pollution or noise

What we can do

To deal with noise nuisance, we can:

• send a notification of investigation and warning letters
• request that those responsible attend an interview under caution
• serve an abatement notice to control the noise
• prosecute those responsible and, in some cases, seize their equipment if the abatement notice is breached and the noise is witnessed by officers

We can dispose of seized equipment if a prosecution is successful.