We have a duty to take reasonable steps to investigate allegations of statutory nuisance:
- Smoke emitted from a premises (but not smoke from a chimney in a Smoke Control Area)
- Fumes or gases emitted from premises
- Dust, steam or smell from an industrial, trade or business premises only
- An accumulation or deposit
- Any animal kept in such a place or manner (does not include wild animals)
- Noise emitted from premises
- Insects in industrial, trade or business premises only
- Artificial light emitted from premises
To count as a statutory nuisance, it must be ’prejudicial to health or a nuisance’. Therefore, it must do one or both of the following:
- injure health or be likely to injure health;
- unreasonably and substantially interfere with the use or enjoyment of someone else’s home or other premises.
See the Government’s advice ‘Statutory nuisances: how councils deal with complaints’
Processing activity – In general, we will process personal information relating to:
- nature of alleged offence(s)
- receiving and investigating complaints of a statutory nuisance
- service of abatement notice(s)
- primary authority activities receiving and investigating complaints
- prosecution(s)
- general correspondence between you and us
We may formally require you to provide data about your name and property by serving a Requisition for Information under section16 of Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976.
Information requirements - the information collected and held will vary and depend on the statutory nuisance we are investigating. Our processing activities may include:
- your name, address, telephone number, email address
- subject site/premises address
- organisation details
- organisation activity
- diary entries
- noise recordings
- video recordings
- photographs
- land ownership details
- witness statement/impact statement
When we investigate noise complaints, we may use information submitted by you, using a third party Noise App. You must first register and create an account to record noise disturbances using your Android or Apple mobile device. You are able to create a diary of noise events which can then be used by us to help us assess your complaint.
By submitting noise recordings to us, you are consenting to the following use of your data. We
- may investigate and determine your complaint
- will contact you about the complaint and update you of progression of it, including the final outcome
- where applicable, share the complaint with a third party
- where applicable, make your social landlord aware of the complaint and discuss the complaint if necessary
Lawful bases - our lawful bases for processing your personal information are:
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(c) - our legal obligation(s) under the:
- Public Health Act 1936
- Prevention of Damage by Pest Act 1949
- Public Health 1961
- Control of Pollution Act 1974
- Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976
- Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976
- Zoo Licensing Act 1981
- Building Act 1984 (defective drainage)
- Environmental Protection Act 1990
- Water Industry Act 1991
- Noise and Statutory Nuisance Act 1993
- Clean Air Act 1993
- Noise Act 1996
- Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999
- Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003
- Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005
- Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008 & Primary Authority Statutory Guidance
- Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014
- Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) Regulations 2018
- UK GDPR Article 6(1)(e) and DPA 2018, section 8(c)) - where processing is necessary for the performance of a task in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in us under the legislation referred to above
- UK GDPR Article 9(2)(g) and DPA 2018, Schedule 1, para.6(1) & (2)(a)) - special category personal data - where processing is necessary for the reasons of substantial public interest under the legislation referred to above
- UK GDPR Article 10 as supplemented by DPA 2018 section 10(5) & Schedule 1, Part 2, paras. 6(1) and (2)(a)) - criminal convictions and offences - where processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest under the legislation referred to above
We have a Data Protection Policy that sets out how this information will be handled.
Data sharing - we always try to maintain the confidentiality of complainants when dealing with complaints. However due to the nature of the complaint, confidentiality cannot be guaranteed and we may need to disclose your identity to the individual/organisation, the subject of the complaint.
We may share your information with and receive information from:
- council department(s)
- Ombudsman
- courts/tribunals
- Health & Safety Executive
- local authorities
- regulatory bodies such as the Fire Service, DEFRA and Environment Agency
We share information with the police to aid with the detection and prevention of criminal acts. We may also rely on a number of exemptions, which allow us to share information without needing to comply with all the rights and obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018. Please refer to the Kent & Medway Information Agreement for further details on our sharing arrangements.
Retention period - we keep your personal information for the minimum period necessary. The information outlined in this Privacy Notice will be kept for 7 years after the last action unless exceptional circumstances require longer retention e.g. a pending legal proceedings. All information will be held securely and disposed of confidentially.
Right to object – where processing your personal information is required for the performance of a public interest task (see our lawful bases above), you have the right to object on ‘grounds relating to your particular situation’. We will have to demonstrate why it is appropriate for us to continue to use your personal data.
Anonymisation- your personal information may be converted ('anonymised') into statistical or aggregated data in such a way that ensures that you cannot be identified from it. Aggregated data cannot, by definition, be linked back to you as an individual and may be used to conduct research and analysis, including the preparation of statistics for use in our reports.
Changes to this Privacy Notice – we review this Privacy Notice regularly and will place updates on our website.
Please refer to our Corporate Privacy Notice and our Privacy Notice for Environmental Health for further details of how we process your personal information and your rights.
Please also refer to the noise app provider’s data protection and privacy notice.
Note that we may process your personal information on more than one lawful basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your information