What is a Statutory Nuisance?

Part Three of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act has a list of nuisances to which abatement (reduction) procedures apply. These include the nine listed below:

  1. Any premises in such a state as to be harmful to health or a nuisance (See section 79(1)(a)). For a speedier procedure to deal with defective premises, see BA 1984 see section76, FC18.
  2. Smoke coming from premises that is harmful to health or an nuisance; but this does not apply to:
    1. premises occupied by the Crown for military or Ministry of Defence purposes
    2. smoke coming from the chimney of a house within a smoke control area
    3. dark smoke from the chimney of a building or of a furnace attached to a building or installed on any land
    4. smoke from a railway locomotive steam engine
    5. dark smoke from any industrial or trade premises (See section 79(1)(b), (2) and (3))
  3. Fumes or gases coming from private dwellings that is harmful to health or a nuisance (See section 79(1)(c) and (4))
  4. Any dust, steam (other than from a railway locomotive engine), smell or other effluvia (ordorous fumes given off by waste) arising on industrial, trade or business premises that is harmful to health or a nuisance (See section 79(1)(d) and (5))
  5. Any accumulation or deposit which is harmful to health or a nuisance (See section 79(1)(f))
  6. Any animal kept a place or manner which is harmful to health or a nuisance (See section 79(1)(f))
  7. Noise (except that from aircraft other than model aircraft) coming from premises that is harmful to health or a nuisance; but this does not apply to Crown premises used for military or Ministry of Defence purposes (See section 79(1)(ga), (2) and (6) as amended)
  8. Noise that is harmful to health or a nuisance and comes from or caused by a vehicle, machinery or equipment in a street (other than noise made by traffic, by an military force or by political demonstration or a demonstration supporting or opposing a cause or campaign) (See section 79(1)(ga) and (6A)).
  9. Any other matter declared by any act to be statutory nuisance (See section 79(1)(h) and these include:
    1. any well, tank, cistern or water butt used for the supply of water for domestic purposes which is so placed, constructed or kept in a way that makes the water liable to contamination and harmful to health (PHA 1936 section 141)
    2. any pond, pool, ditch, gutter or watercourse which is so foul or in such a state that it is harmful to health or a nuisance (PHA 1936 section 259(1)(a))
    3. any part of a watercourse, which is not ordinarily navigated by vessels used to carry goods by water, which is so choked or silted up that it obstructs or prevents the proper flow of water and as a result causes a nuisance or creates conditions which are harmful to health (PHA 1936 section. 259(1)(b))
    4. a tent, van, shed or similar structure used for human habitation>
      1. which is in such a state, or so overcrowded, as to be harmful to the health of the people living in it, or
      2. the use of which, because of the absence of proper sanitary accommodation, or otherwise, can create whether on the site or on other land, a nuisance or to conditions which are harmful to health (PHA 1936 section 268(2))
    5. a shaft or outlet of  an abandoned or disused mine where:
      1. it is not properly secured in order to prevent people accidentally entering the outlet; or
      2. because it is accessibility from a road or public place it constitutes a danger to the public (M and QA 1954 section. 151)
    6. a quarry that does not have an efficient and properly maintained barrier designed and built to prevent people from accidentally falling into it and because it is accessible from a road or public place, amounts to a danger to the public (M and QA 1954 section 151)

In carrying out the statutory nuisance procedures, Local Authorities can not deal with the radioactive state of any substance, article or premises. These matters come under the Radioactive Substances Act 1993 (RSA 1993 section 40)

Also see http://www.devonline.gov.uk/index/information_and_services/environmental_health/pollution/content-nuisance.htm