Industrial odours
Odour is subjective, what is offensive to one person may be acceptable to another therefore any odour will need to be assessed subjectively by one of our officers, who must visit you in your property to witness theodour for us to take action.
Odour nuisance is dealt with consideration of the statutory nuisance provisions, Sections 79 and 80 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The odour must be seriouslyaffecting an individual's use or enjoyment of their property, occur continuously for a period of time and be a frequent problem. To determine whether the odour is a statutory nuisance officers will consider:
- type of odour
- source of odour
- wind strength and direction
- duration of odour
- time of day
- how often it occurs
- how it materially affects comfort or enjoyment of property
If satisfied that a statutory nuisance is occurring and may reoccur then a legal notice, Abatement Notice, will be served requiring the abatement offurther nuisances. Sometimes, however, the 'Best Practicable Means' are already in place i.e. suitable means are already being employed to prevent the nuisance and there is no further improvement that can be achieved. In those circumstances the person or company responsible will have a duty to do what they reasonably can to minimise those smells.
If nuisances continue to occur and further nuisances are proved beyond allreasonable doubt then the person responsible may be prosecuted in a Magistrates' Court. The fine for successfulprosecution may be up to £20,000 for commercial or industrial offences.
Please note that we are unable to take statutory nuisance action against premises that hold a permit under the Pollution Prevention & Control Act1999, because the permit for the prescribed process will contain a number of conditions relating to the control of emissions to atmosphere.
If you have concerns about odour from industrial premises then please contact us using the details below:
Contact us
Pollution Control
Engineering and Transportation Services
Walsall Council
2nd floor, Civic Centre
Darwall Street
Walsall
WS1 1DG
Telephone 01922 653348
Fax 01922 623234
Email pollutioncontrol@walsall.gov.uk
This page was last updated on 22 January 2010