North Hertfordshire District Council did not do enough to stop a resident suffering noise pollution from a nearby business, an Ombudsman has found.
After the resident complained that the company was causing noise nuisance from early in the morning, the council spent two years trying to resolve the issue informally.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman stressed that the local authority should have considered whether the noise was a statutory nuisance, which would require it to serve an abatement notice within a week.
Ombudsman Amerdeep Somal said the delay left the resident suffering from the impact of the noise for ‘far too long’, and said the issue had been avoidable.
North Hertfordshire agreed to pay the woman £3,000 to recognise the impact on her quality of life.
The council’s executive member for housing and environmental health, Dave Winstanley, said: ‘We apologise to the complainant and have adjusted our procedures following this case.’
