Renfrewshire Council

What statutory nuisance complaints are

Statutory nuisances can include:

• premises in such a state
• smoke emitted from premises
• fumes or gases emitted from premises
• any dust, steam, smell or other effluvia arising on industrial, trade or business premises
• any accumulation or deposit
• any water covering land or land covered with water which is in such a state
• any animal kept in such place or manner
• any insects emanating from premises
• artificial light emitted from premises or any stationary object
• noise emitted from premises
• noise emitted from or caused by a vehicle, machinery or equipment in a street or road.

A statutory nuisance is defined as any of the above categories that, in the opinion of the local authority officer, is prejudicial to health or a nuisance having regard to the frequency, the duration and the severity of the event.

Report a statutory nuisance

If you think you are affected by issues that may be a statutory nuisance, contact our Environmental Improvements Team at e-prot.es@renfrewshire.gov.uk or call 0300 300 0380.

Your complaint will be investigated by one of our Environmental Improvements Officers.

If we determine that a statutory nuisance exists, we are under a duty to serve an abatement notice on the persons responsible for the nuisance.

Failure to comply with the notice is an offence which can be reported to the Procurator Fiscal.

We will always attempt to resolve any issues informally but sometimes we do require to take formal action.

Fixed penalty fines

There is provision for us to issue fixed penalty notices, where we consider this appropriate, as an alternative to reporting the offender to the Procurator Fiscal.

The fixed penalty charge is £150 for domestic situations and rises to £400 where the offence occurs on industrial, trade or business premises.

The use of fixed penalty notices would generally be considered as appropriate to deal with simple nuisances, such as accumulations of household waste or water damage to property from leaking pipes.

Charges for default repairs and nuisance abatement work

The charges are:

• £167.85 for default repairs by Community Resources
• £167.85 nuisance abatement work