Your Guide to Gathering Evidence

Evidence of noise nuisance is key to progressing complaints of noise. Noise complaints can occur at any time of the day or night and it's not always possible for an Environmental Health Officer to witness the noise. However, as the person being subjected to the noise you can gather audio or video evidence at the time, which will help progress your case. This evidence, when combined with completed nuisance record sheets and witness statements (where appropriate), really help the Council's Environmental Health Officers fully understand your complaint and the impact it has on you and your family. To assist you, your evidence (audio or visual, nuisance record sheets and witness statements) can now be uploaded using our |online noise reporting form.

When gathering evidence of noise nuisance, you need to be aware of the following:

• Your evidence needs to be true, to the best of your knowledge and belief.
  If you knowingly tender evidence, which you know to be false or do not believe to be true, you will be liable to prosecution.
• Human Rights
  When gathering evidence it is important not to infringe human rights legislation. Essentially, this means that when completing your nuisance record sheet entries you do not include personal information about your neighbours or their family life. When making audio or video evidence of noise, just try to capture evidence of the noise and not your neighbours or their family going about their ordinary life i.e. do not snoop on neighbours or their family.
• Loss of Evidence
  The Council cannot be responsible for the loss of any evidence submitted, so please remember to keep a copy.

1 - Gathering Audio and/or Visual Evidence

Audio and/or visual evidence can be gathered using:

• mobile phones (especially "smart phones" like the Apple Iphone)
• digital video cameras
• digital cameras

Details on how to make a video or audio clip can be found in the manufacturer's instruction manual (either printed or online). This evidence can then be uploaded to your computer (via e-mail, cable attachment or SD card) and then submitted using our online noise reporting form. The file formats you can upload are jpg, bmp, gif, jpeg, tif, png, mp3, wav, aif, mid, zip. If you have a problem uploading your audio/video clip |please let us know by e-mail or alternatively call 01372474750 during office hours. Please note that each noise reporting form has a 50Mb file upload size limit. (This typically is approximately 30 seconds to one minutes worth of recording depending on the recorded file size. The greater the recording quality, the larger the file size, the less recorded time you will be able to upload.)

Note: Don't worry if you play your recording back on your camera/phone and it doesn't sound as you would expect it to. Experience has shown that when we receive it and play it back using Council software it is representative of the noise you heard.

Example of Evidence Gathering:

Mrs D has been suffering loud music and raised voices from her next-door neighbour - typically in the middle of the night. She keeps a digital camera by her bed. It's 3.00 am and she is awoken by her neighbour's loud music. She records from her bedroom the noise coming through the party wall while pointing the camera at her bedside clock to record the date and time. She also records her own voice giving her name, the date and time, and advising how she was awoken by her neighbours loud music and that she can hear her neighbour Mr Y singing the words of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". She makes a number of short recordings over the nuisance period.

The next day she completes the Council's online noise reporting form and uploads her video clip as evidence. Mrs D's is an ongoing case, so she inputs her complaint reference number (WK/20........ - located at the top right-hand corner of the Environmental Health & Licensing Division's letters) when requested to do so on the form. The evidence submitted will be then attached to her case file. She also makes a note of her evidence gathering on her nuisance record sheet.

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2 - Nuisance record sheets

These are an essential part of noise complaint investigations as they document the detail of each incident of noise and allow you to say how the noise affects you or your family. If you don't keep a record of noise nuisance as it occurs then this vital information may be lost.

Your nuisance record sheet diary entries:

• Help Council officers fully understand your complaint and enables them to judge whether the noise is likely to constitute a 'Statutory Nuisance'.
• Help Council officers identify any patterns of when the noise is likely to occur, in case they need to visit.
• May form part of the evidence should the matter progress to court, either through Council action or through you taking your own legal action.

We understand your reluctance to complete nuisance record sheets, however, your case may not progress if you fail to do this.

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3 - Witness Statements

A Witness Statement is your account of what occurred "in your own words". This can be used to support more formal action, such as service of a Noise Abatement Notice, and any legal action should the matter progress to court.

Completing Your Witness Statement

• Start with information about yourself, including where you live, how long you have lived there, and who you live with.
• Briefly give some background to your complaint.
• Describe, in detail, the specific incident(s).
• Keep your statement factual about what you experienced. Include accurate times, dates and names of anyone that you spoke to.
• Describe what effect this had on you and your family.
• Remember, you are signing to confirm that the statement is true to the best of your knowledge, and that you will be liable to prosecution if you have wilfully stated anything which you know to be false, or do not believe to be true.

Witness Statement Template

Download and complete our template witness statement (in either Microsoft Word or PDF format)

• |Witness Statement
• |Witness Statement

Note: Remember to keep a copy of anything you send or upload.

Example of Use of Witness Statement:

A large "pay party" occurred in a family house, in a residential road, over a bank holiday weekend.

Loud music, singing and shouting disturbed local residents from 10.00 pm through to 5.00 am the following morning. Local residents completed witness statements, detailing the extent to which they had been disturbed.

This detailed evidence resulted in a Noise Abatement Notice being served on the owner of the family house preventing any further noise nuisance. Failure to comply with a Noise Abatement Notice would be a criminal offence with a maximum fine up to £20,000.

Note: The file formats you can upload are doc, docx, rtf, log, pdf, txt, zip

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