Noise nuisance, also known as noise pollution, is one of the common problems people experience in different parts of the UK. Noise pollution can be unavoidable sometimes as the primary sources of noise in residential areas include, intruder alarms, loudspeakers in the streets, noise from construction sites, lawn care maintenance, transportation noise as well as loud music. Over the past decades, noise pollution was increasingly becoming on the rise in the UK, with almost everyone having noisy neighbors. This, therefore, explains why the Environmental Protection Act of 1990 stipulated that councils within the UK must look into complaints about any noise that could be a statutory nuisance. According to the 1990 Act, for any sound to count as a statutory nuisance, it must unreasonably and substantially interfere with the use or enjoyment of home and other premises. Besides, the noise must also injure health or be likely to injure health before it’s considered statutory. However, statutory noise does not apply to the noise from traffic/planes, political demonstrations or demonstrations for a cause, as well as premises occupied by the armed forces.
With the Environmental Protection Act of 1990, people residing in the UK can now report noisy neighbors to their various councils. The council is responsible for investigating every complaint and if it’s considered statutory noise, then whoever is responsible will be served an abatement notice to either stop or restrict the noise. It should be noted that even though the notice is usually served to the person responsible for the noise, it could equally be served to the owner or occupiers of the premises. The council can actually investigate any complaint about noise or a noisy neighbor and it doesn’t matter if the noise pollution is produced during the day or at night.
Although noise pollution has many causes, the number of cases arising from audible intruder alarms was becoming a cause for concern in the UK. Thus, in 2014, the Department for the Environment
Food and Rural Affairs drafted an order (Order 2014), which clearly stipulated the code of practice on noise from audible intruder alarms. The objective of this order was to set out the best practices, these practices are geared towards curbing noise pollution caused by intruder alarms. Some of the practices nevertheless include fitting and maintaining the alarms correctly in a bid to minimize noise, as well as reducing the duration of ringing by fitting a 20-minute cut-out time. Moreover, a key-holder registration system in conjunction with both the police and the local authority is another practice that has gone a long way to reduce the rate of noise pollution caused by intruder alarms. It is also worthy to note that the Clean Neighborhoods and Environment Act of 2005, had given local authorities in the UK the powers of entry to silence alarms after 20 minutes of continuous sounding or an hour of intermittent sounding.
It is also apparent that over the years, there have been developments and improvements in the technological standards of intruder alarms. For example, the European and British standards stipulate a cut-off time of 15 minutes for all modern intruder alarms. More so, the British Standards, which is used by approved firms and British Security Industry Association (BSIA) accredited installers mandates twice yearly maintenance for alarms that have police response.
All good, proper manufacturers of intruder alarm equipment will have and are making their equipment so that it adheres to the regulations. Taking the following sounder as an example it has a built-in cut-off time of 15 minutes.
Of course the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is continuously working hard to monitor the effectiveness of all the procedures and processes that have been put in place to curb noise pollution in the UK.
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