If a noise from a commercial premises causes you a nuisance, we can give you advice and assistance. A commercial premises is any commercial, industrial, or licenced premises operating as a business. This may also include temporary or mobile activities, such as a building site or commercial gardener.
Our responsibilities
We have legal powers to deal with commercial noise nuisance that happens a lot, goes on for a long time, or interferes with your normal activities. This is classed as a ‘statutory nuisance’. There are different options for reporting the issue but, unfortunately, there is no immediate response available for dealing with reports of noise nuisance.
There are some noise types that can’t be dealt with using our statutory nuisance powers, such as noise from traffic, normal construction activity, or noise from anti-social behaviour in the street.
These should be restricted to the following hours: Monday to Friday 7:30am to 6pm. Saturdays 8am to 1pm. No working Sundays and bank holidays. They may be subject to variation, by prior agreement, in extenuating circumstances. Unplanned emergency works may sometimes occur.
More information on when we can use legal powers to deal with nuisance issues, is detailed in our advice leaflet.
How to report a commercial noise nuisance
The first step is to let us know about your noise problem, and to provide us with some basic details about yourself, the noise issue affecting you, the business responsible, and brief details of how you are affected.
You can report something which you think is a statutory noise nuisance online. You can also call us on 0114 273 4567, Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm.
To provide us with an update on an existing case: email eps.admin@sheffield.gov.uk and provide your 6-digit case reference number.
What happens next
We aim to acknowledge your complaint and get back to you with some initial advice within 5 working days.
Whilst we can investigate issues that happen at any time of day or night, unfortunately we are not able to respond directly to reports received outside of office hours. In such cases we will contact you in the daytime to establish the best way to investigate the noise and resolve your complaint.
Some nuisance issues can be investigated and resolved quite quickly. However, in many instances there may be a process of information gathering, and resolving issues may take some time. As part of this process, you may be asked to keep a written record of the noise, when, and how it affects you.