People come to us because something is going on that makes their lives a misery. In non-legal terms a ‘nuisance’, is often said to be something one should not be expected to put up with. If thus proved, the Court may order that the nuisance be abated (eliminated, or reduced to acceptable levels) and compensation paid.

Our nuisance cases range widely: noise from theme parks, motor racing, scrap yards, railways (including the Underground and noisy announcements), industrial activities, chimney smoke; smell from sources like sewage and farming; dust (cases including an open cast coal mine and a foundry); and light pollution. Coventry v Lawrence was a case of ours about motor sport noise which went to the Supreme Court and involved a thorough review of the law of nuisance and illuminated long-established principles along common-sense lines – it is worth a read.

Nuisance cases take place both in the Magistrates Courts (where they are treated as criminal proceedings) and the civil courts (High Court or County Court). We do our best to guide clients through the most effective forum.

Some nuisance work overlaps with our public law and planning practice, including where local authorities have granted planning permissions which may result in a nuisance, or are considering doing so. There may be arguments to make under the agent of change principle to shift the burden to fund mitigation measures. Vice versa, some nuisance is difficult to “get at”, particularly civil aircraft noise (due to historic statutory exemptions). We are proud that as a result of one of our earlier public law cases, a judicial review of proposals for night flying at Heathrow, which could have hugely increased the number of those fights, they have in fact remained at early-1990s levels. Another case resulted in shifting flight paths at Gatwick for the benefit of residents.