Nottingham City Council has successfully prosecuted two business owners for noise nuisance at the Nottingham Magistrates Court on 14 April and 15 April 2008.

Complaints were made against Mr Ashok Bharadwaj and Mrs Sushma Bharadwaj of 75 Arnold Road, Nottingham, regarding a dog barking at the rear of their off licence / newsagents.

The allegations were investigated by Nottingham City Council’s Noise and Pollution Control Team and following observations made on 15 July 2007 and 1 August 2007, which confirmed the existence of a statutory noise nuisance from dog barking at 75 Arnold Road, noise abatement notices were served against the owners on 2 August 2007.

Despite the noise abatement notices six contraventions of the notice were witnessed by five separate officers over the next 3 months.

In view of the continuing problem, the Noise and Pollution Control Team prosecuted Mr and Mrs Bharadwaj and they were found guilty on all counts.   

They were fined £500 each and Nottingham City Council was awarded £1843.88 costs from each defendant.  Together with a victim surcharge of £15, each defendant is liable to pay £2358.88 (total £4717.76).  The Court made a collection order which requires Mr and Mrs Bharadwaj to pay the fines & costs over 24 months & warned the defendants that they risked imprisonment if the fines were not paid.

 Alison Cresswell, Noise and Pollution Control Team, said: “Nottingham City Council seeks to resolve noise nuisance problems informally, however where persistent problems occur and the perpetrators do not take heed of warnings or comply with legal notices then we will take appropriate enforcement action to deal with the problem.”