Pollution

Pollution can take many forms, including noise, air, and water pollution. The Council has a legal duty to ensure that incidents of pollution, both domestic and industrial are kept to a minimum.

The main causes of complaints from residents that can be investigated by Environment Officers relate to noise, alarms and bonfires. For further information on ways to handle the problems and when the Council may become involved follow the links below relating to:

• Noise  from neighbours, factories, pubs and clubs and building sites.
• House, office, factory and car alarms that have not shut themselves off after 20 minutes.
• Neighbours' bonfires to get rid of garden and other waste.
• Fireworks  and firework displays.

You can make a complaint about a local noise or bonfires nuisance using the Online Service below.

Another statutory nuisance is light pollution. The leaflet below explains what constitutes light nuisance and what actions can be taken to reduce it.

A major pollution concern in recent years both in the home and industrially has been around the use of asbestos . Whilst asbestos is no longer commonly used in the home, it can still cause health and environmental problems and needs to be removed and disposed of with care.

Environment Officers also undertake to:

• Control air pollution from industrial processes
• Monitor the quality of the air
• Ensure that contaminants from contaminated land do not interfere with human, animal or plant health
• Control noise from building and construction sites
• Sample private water supplies
• Enforce where necessary the maintenance and upkeep of drainage and sewers at commercial premises

Three Rivers District Council has developed a Contaminated Land Strategy which sets out how the Council will endeavour to deal with the legacy of contaminated land over the next four years. This can be downloaded below.

For further information about the role of the Council and other agencies in enforcing pollution control see our Pollution Control Enforcement Policy, which can be downloaded below.

The service dealing with all residential pollution is part of the team that has been awarded Charter Mark Status for excellence in service delivery.