Local Authorities - Regulatory Roles

Local Authorities have responsibilities for regulating flytipping[2], littering and graffiti through the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.

Councils are responsible for facilities requiring a permit under Part A(2) or Part B installations or mobile plant[3].

Guidance is issued [4] by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Welsh Ministers on the operation of the following pollution control regimes regulated by local authorities:

• Local Authority Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (LA-IPPC), which covers what are known as A2 installations
• Local Authority Pollution Prevention and Control (LAPPC), which covers what are known as Part B installations.

Local Authorities have responsibility to take enforcement action for post-permission matters, including a breach of planning control

A breach of planning control is defined in section 171A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 as:

• the carrying out of development without the required planning permission; or
• failing to comply with any condition or limitation subject to which planning permission has been granted.

Any contravention of the limitations on, or conditions belonging to, permitted development rights, under the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, constitutes a breach of planning control against which enforcement action may be taken[5].

Councils must investigate complaints about issues that could be a ‘statutory nuisance’ (a nuisance covered by the Environmental Protection Act 1990)[1].

If they agree that a statutory nuisance is happening, has happened or will happen in the future, councils must serve an abatement notice (usually on the person responsible).

Issues that may be a statutory nuisance include:

• noise from premises or from vehicles, equipment or machinery in the street
• smoke from premises
• smells from industry, trade or business premises (for example, sewage treatment works, factories or restaurants)
• artificial light from premises
• insect infestations from industrial, trade or business premises
• accumulation or deposits on premises (for example, piles of rotting rubbish)

Local Authorities are responsible for implimenting the regime on contaminated land, including deciding whether land is contaminated land in the legal a sense of the term and the remediation provisions to ensure remediation requirements are reasonable. Statutory guidance (Environmental Protection Act Part 2A) is provided by DEFRA[6].

The requirements that local authorities may have to monitor and manage historical landfill sites that they previoulsy filled is captured under waste/environmental permitting.