Charnwood Borough Council - Leading in Leicestershire

If further action is required the investigating officer will determine what is appropriate from an assessment of the circumstances and the requirements of the law. Some times this will mean that the officer’s decisions will not meet the expectations of the complainant. In the majority of cases action is taken against the person responsible for the accumulation, but in their absence, or if they are unable to be located, the owner of the property or land becomes the focus of our attention. In many cases an informal approach to the person responsible will be sufficient to resolve the situation but if legal action becomes necessary an abatement notice can be served specifying the steps required to resolve the problem and the time in which these must be completed. The abatement notice places a legal obligation on the person responsible to stop the nuisance altogether or control it to reduce the intrusion to a reasonable level deemed appropriate by the investigating officer. In extreme situations involving a serious public health threat we may carry out the necessary work our self, certainly where it is not possible to locate the person responsible or the property owner.