Kirklees Metropolitan Council v Field; Thackray; Marsh and Wilson: Admn 31 Oct 1997

An abatement notice requiring works to be carried out must state clearly what works are required or considered necessary. There was an imminent danger of the collapse onto some cottages of a rockface and wall where the notice was addressed to the respondents as owners of the rockface and wall and simply required them to ‘abate the statutory nuisance’. It was obvious from the abatement notice and indeed the circumstances that the only way in which this could be achieved was by (probably very extensive) works of shoring up and securing the rockface.

Judges:

Lord Justice Brooke Mr Justice Owen And Mr Justice Gage

Citations:

Times 26-Nov-1997, Gazette 26-Nov-1997, [1997] EWHC Admin 960

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Environmental Protection Act 1990 80

Citing:

CitedRegina v Wheatley 1885
If the magistrates think it necessary for things to be done to abate a nuisance they must specify them in their order. When failure to comply with an order will constitute a criminal offence this should cause no surprise. . .
CitedMillard v Wastall 1898
The emission of black smoke from a factory chimney was a nuisance.
Held: When considering an order for the abatement of a nuisance, if the Justices considered it was necessary for things to be done to abate the nuisance, they had normally to . .
CitedWhatling v Rees 1914
. .
CitedMcGillivray v Stephenson 1950
The court upheld a notice requiring a person to abate a nuisance constituting stinking pigs, which said ‘and for that purpose to remove the whole of the pigs from the premises, clear up the effect of their past presence, and cease for the future to . .
CitedSalford City Council v McNally QBD 19-Dec-1974
cw Public Health – Nuisance – Complaint by tenant – Local authority’s compulsory acquisition of house in clearance area – Local authority postponing demolition as house capable of providing accommodation of . .
CitedRegina v Fenny Stratford Justices ex parte Watney Mann Ltd 1976
An order had been made to abate a nuisance caused by loud noise from a juke box. The abatement notice as served required that the nuisance be abated ‘and the level of noise in [the premises] shall not exceed 70dB(A)’.
Held: The words quoted . .
CitedEast Northamptonshire District Council v Brian Fossett 1994
The case involved an allegation of noise, a nuisance at an all night rave. No works were required to abate the nuisance and whether the 1990 Act had created any fundamental change in the law, as the Council claims, was not raised. . .
CitedMyatt v Teignbridge District Council 1994
In a noise nuisance abatement case, the court held that for an Abatement Notice to be sufficient there are two steps: ‘one is you need to know what you have done wrong and, secondly, what it is you are to do to put it right.’ The case here was of . .
CitedNetwork Housing Association Ltd v Westminster City Council QBD 7-Nov-1994
An abatement notice was addressed by the respondent city council to freehold owners of tenanted premises, in respect of a noise source which it was out of their power to stop. This was noise from perfectly normal everyday living, which reached one . .
CitedSterling Homes v Birmingham City Council QBD 1996
The operations of a mammoth press by an industrial operator in close proximity to a residential block of which Sterling were freehold owners, caused a nuisance. The city council served on Sterling (not on the neighbouring industrial operator) an . .
CitedBudd v Colchester Borough Council QBD 1996
This was a dog-barking case in which the Court had to consider an abatement notice. It was argued that a notice which did not specify the level of barking which constituted the nuisance and which did not specify precisely what was to be done to . .

Cited by:

CitedMurdoch and Another v Glacier Metal Company Limited CA 19-Jan-1998
Excess noise by nearby factory above World Health Organisation level was not an actionable nuisance. It was a question for each factual situation. An allowance had to be made for the character of the neighbourhood. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Environment, Nuisance

Updated: 26 May 2022; Ref: scu.137905