Agenda item

            The Sub-Committee considered a report which outlined the current procedures adopted by the Environmental Health Division for silencing misfiring burglar alarms and the new provisions under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005. Under the new provisions of the 2005 Act if an authorised Officer of the Council was satisfied that:

i) an alarm had been sounding continuously for more than 20 minutes or intermittently for more than 1 hour;

ii) the noise was likely to give persons living or working in the vicinity reasonable cause for annoyance (note: this is a lesser standard than having to establish the existence of a statutory nuisance); and

iii) reasonable steps had been taken by the Council to get the nominated keyholder to silence the alarm;

            Then the Officer may enter the premises (without the need for a warrant) to silence the alarm including taking with him such other people (e.g. a contractor) as are needed to silence the alarm. However, the Officer may not enter the premises by force.

            In addition a local authority could designate its area or parts of it as an alarm notification area. Once the designation was in place the occupiers or (if none) the owners of alarmed residential and non-residential properties in the designated areas, must nominate a keyholder for the premises and notify the Local Authority of the contact details of the keyholder. The penalty for failing to notify the Local Authority of keyholders in a designated area was a maximum fine of Level 3 (currently £1,000). The Local Authority may adopt a fixed penalty notice scheme for this offence, for offenders to discharge liability to the offence by payment of a fixed penalty rather than face prosecution in the Magistrates Court.

            It was reported that to date, there had been some reluctance by local authorities to take on board the new provisions, because of the uncertainty of interpretation of force and reasonable force until such time, as they had been tested in Court. Notwithstanding, as the new provisions would allow for misfiring alarms to be silenced much more quickly and less expensively, thus shortening the period that anyone living or working nearby had to suffer the effects of the associated noise pollution, the new provision represented a positive way of tackling the alarm nuisance issue.

            With regard to designation of an alarm notification area large numbers of local authorities were operating a voluntary registration scheme with what appeared to be varying degrees of success. It was proposed that Council consult on the introduction of a scheme for Halton and introduce it for a trial period. The scheme would have to be marketed widely.

            It was noted that this would have implications for the Council’s constitution and would be included in amendments as part of the Annual Review in May 2008.

            RESOLVED: That

(1) the Sub-Committee adopt the provision in the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 for dealing with misfiring alarms and that authority to act under these provisions is delegated to the Strategic Director Environment and to the Operational Director Environment and Regulatory Services and that they be given the power to authorise individual Environmental Health Officers and suitable technical staff to implement these new powers;

(2) a voluntary scheme for registration of keyholders is introduced and its impact reviewed over a 12 month period; and

(3) if following that review a formal alarm notification area is considered necessary, then this be made.