I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act to request the following information for your council area, please.

1. All the information on reported ‘statutory nuisances’/Neighbour Disputes in your council area including:
• Type of nuisance i.e:
• noise (including loud music and barking dogs)
• artificial light (except street lamps)
• dust, steam, smell or insects from business premises
• smoke, fumes or gases
• a build-up of rubbish that could harm health
• High hedges, trees and boundaries
• Number of cases reported
• Noise abatement orders/Fines issued and amount of fine
Please could we have the information on this from the last 5 calendar years, please. If data from the last 5 calendar years is not possible, would it be possible to share data from the last 2 calendar years instead, please?

Please see attached file.

Where nuisance involving a TPO tree does occur there is an exemption in the Town and Country Planning (Tree Preservation)(England) Regulations 2012 that:
Exceptions
14.—(1) Nothing in regulation 13 shall prevent—
a) the cutting down, topping, lopping or uprooting of a tree—
(i) which is dead;
(ii) in compliance with any obligation imposed by or under an Act of Parliament or so far as may be necessary for the prevention or abatement of a nuisance;
The response to nuisance must of course be reasonable (per Delaware Mansions Ltd. V Westminster CC) and can often be addressed without significant harm to the TPO tree.

In terms of Statutory nuisance I would say. We do get High Hedges complaints but only one new one in the last five years, although, of their nature hedges grow and so cases are ongoing and existing cases do recur as nuisances from time to time. Including recurring nuisances I can find four High Hedges cases that required action from the Council in the last five years.