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HOW LOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO TACKLE NOISE BY JOHN BYNORTH Any local authority environmental health officer will tell you that the era of standing outside shopping centres handing out information leaflets about how to complain about intrusive noise and nuisance issues are long gone. Recent changes in local government, the internet and social media have driven change in the way people make complaints. In this first of a series of articles, we look at the innovative work of Fife Council and Aberdeen City Council to make the public aware of their environmental health services.

WITH a population of around 370,000, the Kingdom of Fife covers a vast and diverse area ranging from the golfing and student centre of St Andrews, with its famous Old Course and historic university to pretty seaside towns along the East Neuk coast to former coal-mining communities and residential, shopping and industrial hubs such as Glenrothes and Dunfermline.

The diverse nature of its communities breeds a variety of noise problems and Fife Council’s environmental health team are inundated with complaints ranging from barking dogs to noisy nightclubs, bars, takeaway shops and sometimes from holiday lets in the neighbouring seaside communities of Elie, right, neighbouring Earlsferry and Anstruther.

The local authority de-cluttered its website, making it easier for people to make a complaint about noise, and indeed other issues.

The rights of people to complain and when and how to do so is easily explained in the noise complaints section of Fifedirect.org.uk and they can submit a report in a few seconds using an e-form.

Fife environmental officers embrace Twitter and have sent messages and links to encourage people to report noise problems – while also reminding people of certain cases where action is difficult, such as farmers who use a bird-scarer to avoid damage to their crops.

Mr Taylor, the lead officer for public health, said: “Ten years ago we didn’t have social media and our officers would in shopping centres handing out leaflets advising on noise. You were never going to get those leaflets to 47,000 people, but that’s what we can do at the click of a button now because that’s how many Twitter followers Fife Council has.

“A lot of complaints are made to us about noise by e-form and people rarely leave their home phone number these days – it’s usually their mobile phones.”

Licensing Standards (LSOs) are also involved in noise, looking after licensed premises.

Lead Officer Douglas Hardaker explained the council’s on-call Licensing Standards Officers (LSOs) work in pairs out of hours. Some duties includes responding to complaints about noise from licensed premises. Officers can be busy with this type of complaint, particularly at the weekend. Complainants can contact the LSOs direct on a mobile phone number out-of-hours, which allows them to drive straight to their house to try and witness an alleged incident.

It can be busy shifts for the LSOs, especially at weekends with Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline home to a string of nightclubs while dozens of bars, including former miners’ welfare clubs and other social institutions, scattered around the local authority area lead to many noise complaints.

LSOs have a procedure which gives the licence holder of a premises a chance to rectify the situation. When this approach fails, LSOs apply for a review of the bar or nightclub’s licence. Around four cases a year go to the licensing board from 55 noise complaints annually about noise from licensed premises.

Mr Taylor, pictured on the left outside the council’s HQ, Fife House in Glenrothes, said the perennial problem of barking dogs is easily their biggest source of complaint.

Fife had a total of 4,200 requests for assistance from the team in 2017, which included 259 reports of barking dogs and 219 other domestic noise complaints, such as music, people shouting in their homes or the street, or about over- enthusiastic noise from DIY taking place in households. There were also 55 noise complaints about liquor licensed premises.

Mr Taylor’s team has also seen a sharp rise in the number of times they have been consulted about planning applications, from just under 500 in 2016/17 to 792 in the last financial year. The local authority views this as a key area for early intervention to protect the interests of both residents and businesses.

That figure does not include the 54 occasions in which their advice was sought by consultants and developers seeking information about acoustics last year.

Mr Taylor added: “The biggest one is dogs who are left in the garden because they cause noise problems for a wider group. It’s a problem for us.” He said generally it was still “a big step for someone to make a complaint” and it is essential to make it clear to people how they can lodge a complaint and what kind of service they can expect.

Further north, one of Scotland’s main cities has also been involved in innovative work this year to make people aware of how to report noise. ABERDEEN CITY COUNCIL’S NOISE E-LEAFLET

In May, environmental health officers at Aberdeen City Council updated their noise leaflet and placed it on their website for people to upload and print off if required. Staff use Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to promote ways people can complain about noise.

The leaflet can be downloaded as a PDF and printed off by people at the click of a button is linked to the noise team’s page on the city council website for easy access. The six-page document entitled ‘Noise Problem? Advice on Noise Nuisance in Aberdeen’ uses colourful, yet simple graphics to highlight the kind of issues people can complaint about and provides the necessary contact information.

It backs up the template on the website was already in existence, as is the case for most local authorities, for people to fill in and report complaints on the city’s website if they are making a complaint out of normal office hours.

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The online document includes a description of a ‘noise problem’ as one which can prevent you getting to sleep; lead to a significant reduction in quality of life, due to noise or vibration, even during the day; lead to undue disturbance by others affecting their house or workplace and includes examples such as music, alarms, machinery, acts of ‘unreasonable behaviour’ resulting in unacceptable amounts of noise being produced.

The leaflet, right, sets out how people should consider approaching those responsible for making the noise to make them aware of the problem and suggests that they may not even realise they are disturbing the complainant.

It adds that if this doesn’t work or a person feels they cannot speak to the ‘noise maker’ then they should contact the Environmental Health team and provides the number and email address.

The city council’s leaflet also lays out the types of noise EHO’s can deal with (from commercial premises; construction sites; alarms and barking dogs) and those the anti-social behaviour investigation team can look into (music, DIY work, washing machines) providing their details.

There are also details about the European Noise Directive and noise mapping in Aberdeen City Centre and the objectives under the city’s Noise Action Plan.

The city council has tweeted about it to encourage awareness in an example of using social media to spread the message about how people can complain about intrusive noise.

The leaflet also helps identify the types of noise disturbance its EHO’s will investigation and how members of the public can make contact with the team if they believe they are suffering from unacceptable noise levels.

The Newsletter would be interested to hear from EHO’s in other local authorities are how they are tackling noise for a future article. Please email [email protected] and mark ‘NOISE’ in the subject box.

USEFUL FURTHER LINKS:

The Scottish Government’s noise maps produced in response to the European Noise Directive can be found here https://noise.environment.gov.scot/ www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2018-05/Advice%20on%20Noise%20Nuisance%20Leaflet.pdf

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