A Nailsea couple have been fined hundreds of pounds for
failing to comply with a noise abatement notice.
Carl and Kerry Bushe from Goss Barton in the town were
prosecuted by North Somerset Council for three breaches.
They did not attend the hearing at North Somerset Magistrates
Court on November 16 and had not contacted the court. The
case was heard in their absence.
The court heard that we had received complaints about excessive
barking from dogs coming from their property of 3 Goss Barton for
some time.
On 9 February this year the council served a noise abatement
notice on the Bushes which required them to 'Provide adequate
supervision of the dogs so as to prevent undue barking or take any
other action that may be necessary to prevent the nuisance from
recurring'.
On 28 July as the result of a complaint, one of our
environmental protection officer went to the property and between
10.05 and 10.45am he recorded a total of 885
barks.
There was no reply when he called at the property and later that
day he wrote to the Bushes telling them what had happened and
warned them that they should take steps to prevent any further
breaches of the notice.
On 3 August, we received a complaint about noise from barking
dogs at the property. An officer attended and between 11.45
and 11.52am she recorded 141 barks.
Five days later following another complaint officers went to the
complainant’s property where over a nine minute period 376 barks
were recorded.
Magistrates found the case proved and passed the following
sentence on each of the Bushes:
£1,500 fine (£500 for each offence), prosecution costs of
£358.75 and a £15 victim surcharge.
Cllr Peter Bryant, executive member for environmental
protection, said that the case sent a strong signal that blighting
other people's lives through excessive noise would not be
tolerated.
"Constant noise can have a really debilitating effect on people
- especially when they are at home where it is completely
reasonable to expect a certain level of peace and quiet.
"In this particular case we had spoken to the dog owners who
chose to ignore our advice and decided that the noise abatement
notice wasn't something they needed to abide by. The successful
prosecution we have brought demonstrates we do take these
situations seriously and their actions have cost this couple
dear."
