Odour Pollution

Pollution Control - Odour

Odour Nuisance
General Information
Odour can be produced from various sources, for example agricultural or business
practises, domestic premises, keeping of pets and accumulation of rubbish. This is how
we deal with odour complaints and how to prevent an odour nuisance from occurring in
the first place.
Environmental Protection Act 1990
The Environmental Protection Act 1990 is the legal framework used to investigate odour
complaints deemed to be causing a nuisance or be injurious to health. We can use this
Act to investigate complaints originating from fumes or gases from domestic premises,
smells from an industrial, trade or business premise, an accumulation of rubbish and the
living conditions of an animal.
Statutory Nuisance
Odour is subjective (what is offensive to one person may be acceptable to another) and
factors that are examined when considering the existence of a statutory nuisance are:

type of odour

wind strength and direction

duration of odour

time of day

how often it occurs

The odour needs to be considered to be a Statutory Nuisance from an Environmental

Health Officers professional opinion. In addition, the source needs to be beyond
reasonable doubt as the cause of the odour.

To be a Statutory Nuisance the odour needs to be witnessed as materially affecting the

comfort or enjoyment of the complainants property or the public at large.
Our Duty
We have a duty under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to undertake reasonable
investigations of all odour complaints to establish whether a Statutory Nuisance exists.
Enforcement Action
Statutory Nuisance is witnessed an Abatement Notice under section 80 of
Environmental Protection Act 1990 would be served. An Abatement Notice is a legal
document requiring the nuisance is stopped and does not occur again and may require
the execution of works or steps to abate the nuisance. The notice can also specify the
time within which the notice is to be complied with and specify the rights for times or
appeal. The notice is served on the person responsible for the nuisance, if that person
cannot be found the owner or occupier of the premises.
If the notice is not complied with the person causing the nuisance may be prosecuted.
There is a maximum fine of 5000 in domestic cases and 20,000 for commercial and
industrial premises.
Initial Action
There is a strong possibility that the person causing the odour nuisance is unaware that
they are disturbing other people. We recommend that the first step you take is to speak
to the person responsible directly.