Charnwood Borough Council

Firstly, we encourage residents to consider approaching the source of any problem themselves before involving ourselves. Often this will help maintain good relations with your neighbour if they are given the opportunity to resolve the matter without intervention by the Council, and may also solve the problem quicker. Try and arrange a realistic deadline with your neighbour for taking action, bearing in mind that any accumulations involving food waste, perhaps as part of domestic waste, should ideally be removed without delay. If nothing is done within any agreed time you will at least have raised your concerns with them and will have forced them to acknowledge the issue and the consequences of ignoring it. Your neighbour will have no comeback if you then have to refer the problem to the Environmental Protection team. Advice on how to approach your neighbour about problems can be found elsewhere the Environmental Protection team web pages. However, you are under no legal requirement to speak to your neighbour firstly, and if for any reason you would prefer not to, you can simply refer the problem to the Environmental Protection team for further investigation.

In the majority of accumulation complaints referred to the Environmental Protection team, an officer will need to visit the site to make an assessment of the problem, and in some cases may ask one of the Council’s Pest Control Officers to accompany them to look for evidence of vermin activity. The officer will use their legal knowledge and draw on their experience to determine whether the problem falls within our own legal responsibilities by considering the following factors to assess whether it constitutes a statutory nuisance or is prejudicial to health:

• What is the nature of the accumulation and in particular does it include any putrescible material such as food waste?
• Where did the material come from? Was it generated on the property or brought onto the site?
• Is it commercial or domestic waste?
• How has it been caused? Is it connected to an unusual or excessive use of the source property? Has someone behaved irresponsibly, unreasonably or maliciously in allowing the rubbish to accumulate?
• Who is responsible for causing the accumulation?
• What level of nuisance is being caused to other residents by the accumulation; e.g. how strong is the odour from the accumulation and does it affect other residents, and to what degree? Are large numbers of flies being attracted to the accumulation that also affects other residents?
• For the purposes of our powers under the Prevention of Damage by Pests Act 1949, is the accumulation causing rats or mice to come to the property in considerable numbers? What evidence is there of significant rat infestation on the property?