Summary: There is no fault in the Council’s response to complaints about noise nuisance from hotels. The Council has investigated by carrying out site visits, monitoring noise and speaking to the hotel management. Mrs X complains the noise has woken her up, especially when deliveries arrive early but the Council has said that it is no longer able to respond to similar complaints unless the situation worsens as the noise is not at a level it can take action over at present.

The complaint

1. The complainant, who I shall call Mrs X complains about the Council’s response to her complaints about noise from a nearby hotel. Mrs X complains the Council has said it will no longer respond to complaints about late night noise from parties at nearby hotels.
2. Mrs X also complaint the Council has not taken action to stop noise from early morning deliveries from a hotel or coaches leaving engines running outside a hotel. Mrs X says the noise wakes her up.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints of injustice caused by ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. I have used the word fault to refer to these. We consider whether there was fault in the way an organisation made its decision. If there was no fault in the decision making, we cannot question the outcome. (Local Government Act 1974, section 34(3), as amended)
4. If we are satisfied with an organisation’s actions or proposed actions, we can complete our investigation and issue a decision statement. (Local Government Act 1974, section 30(1B) and 34H(i), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I read the papers put in by Mrs X and discussed the complaint with her.
6. I considered the Council’s comments about the complaint and any supporting documents it provided.
7. Mrs X and the organisation had an opportunity to comment on my draft decision. I considered any comments received before making a final decision.

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What I found

8. Mrs X lives opposite a group of three large hotels. Mrs X has explained that she is woken most days between 3 and 7 am by early morning deliveries to the hotels. She complains that coaches leave their engines running when waiting outside the hotel, which means she cannot sit outside due to the smell and noise.
9. Mrs X also said there can be noise from entertainment at the hotel, which is sometimes up to 2am in the morning. Mrs X says the Council has now told her that she will be prosecuted if she continues to complain about the issues.

What happened

10. The Council has a record of a complaint about noise from an extraction fan and idling coaches outside the hotel in October 2019 from Mrs X. The officer installed noise monitoring equipment which did not record a noise nuisance and the officer noted that the fan noise was inaudible with Mrs X’s windows closed. The Environmental Health officer (EHO) spoke to the manager of the group of three hotels. The officer recorded that the fan wasn’t very noisy. The notes say the hotel manager would contact the bus companies to ask them to turn engines off and would change the glass collection company if they continued to come at the wrong time.
11. In December 2019 the EHO wrote to Mrs X. The letter said that:
• Coach engines idling for 10-15 minutes were not a nuisance as they were during the day and not late at night/early in the morning.
• Bottle bin filling and emptying was being carried out according to the hotel’s licence conditions (between 7am and 11 pm) and so no action could be taken.
• The noise from the ventilation fan was not at a level the Council could take action over.
• The hotel had done what it could about noise from delivery drivers and the Council could take no further action at this time. But, if the deliveries begun arriving in the early hours there could be reason to investigate this further.
• There was no evidence of regular noise nuisance from late night parties but the Council would investigate this further if late evening noise was more frequent.
12. The next complaints on record are from July and August 2021. In response to the complaint about early bin collections, the EHO contacted the company and asked them to ensure the bin collections were kept to the hours in the licence.
13. Mrs X confirmed the noise from the bin collections improved, but there were still other early morning deliveries. The EHO said that there were no licence restrictions preventing the other deliveries so these may not be able to be controlled. I have seen the email from the hotel management, who said that there had been some unusual delivery times that had been outside their control and that they had removed a smoking area and hired security to control any noise issues from residents.
14. There was a further complaint from Mrs X in May 2022 about loud music from the hotel. A council officer visited in response to out of hours noise complaint at 1am on 8 May 2022 but recorded no evidence of noise. An environmental Health officer witnessed no noise nuisance from the fans at 10 pm on 26 and 30 May 2022.
15. The Council’s notes show the environmental health officer met with hotel manager on 14 June 2022. The hotel manager said that they had instructed delivery companies to avoid early deliveries when possible and had asked coach drivers not to avoid engines idling. The hotel manager said that they had tried disembarking passengers at the front of the hotel but this had caused safety and congestion issues.
16. The Council wrote to Mrs X on 26 June 2022. The letter said ‘various meetings have taken place with the management at the hotels and they have put in place measures to try and reduce the impact from the operations connected with the business. Having fully investigated your complaint, I must advise you there is insufficient evidence to indicate that a statutory nuisance has occurred or is likely to occur. We are not intending to take any further action in this matter’.
17. Mrs X made further noise complaints in September 2022. The Council wrote to Mrs X to say its position had not change and it would take no action regarding her recent reports. The Council said ‘unless the situation changes significantly in the future this will remain our position’.
18. On 21 September 2022 the Council wrote to Mrs X again after she made further noise complaints. The Council said that if she continued to send in repeated complaints of a similar nature then it would consider taking action under its unreasonable complaints policy.

My analysis

19. I have looked at all the information supplied to me by the Council. I can see the Council has responded to all Mrs X’s complaints before September 2022 by visiting, monitoring the noise and speaking to the hotel. The Council has collected all the available information from Mrs X, the hotel, site visits and noise monitoring before reaching a conclusion that there is no evidence of statutory noise nuisance that it can take action over.
20. I appreciate that Mrs X does not agree with the Council’s decision not to take further action. But, as it was taken without fault, it is a decision the Council is entitled to take. The Council is also entitled to refer to its unreasonable complaints policy, so I find no fault on this point either. The Council has not said it will no longer respond to complaints. It has said that it will not respond unless the situation changes significantly.

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Final decision

21. I have completed my investigation of this complaint. This complaint is not upheld as there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman