Council 'failed to fix noise row'
A Somerset council should pay £3,000 compensation to a man after "failing to properly investigate" his complaints, the Local Government Ombudsman ruled.
The man, who lives next door to a pub, complained to Sedgemoor District Council about noise from its skittle alley between 1998 and 2005.
But the council failed to step in, and did not enforce its own noise-related planning conditions.
It now has to tell the ombudsman what action it proposes to take.
A report by the Ombudsman, Jerry White, revealed that in 1996, the inn applied for planning permission to extend its skittle alley.
Following advice from the Environmental Health officer, the permission was granted subject to music levels being controlled either by limiting the volume or by use of sound insulation material.
But the neighbour - who cannot be named for legal reasons - complained that since 1998 the council "failed to take prompt and appropriate action" to deal with his complaints of noise nuisance.
The Ombudsman found the council's failure to act caused a neighbour to "suffer from unnecessarily prolonged nuisance from amplified music at the skittle alley."
Ruling maladministration causing injustice, he noted that the council "failed to properly investigate the complaints and did not enforce planning conditions controlling noise from the inn."
He recommended the council paid the complainant £3,000 and said the council should, without further delay, determine what action if any is required to remedy the breach of planning conditions.
He suggested the council review its liaison arrangements between environmental health and planning departments, to ensure such problems do not recur.
A Sedgemoor District Council spokeswoman said the council would not make any comment until it had read the report and decided its response.
Source: The BBC (07/07/2006)
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