REMEDYING ‘A DISPARATE COLLECTION
OF UNACCEPTABLE STATES OF AFFAIRS’
AS ‘MODERN LIFE HAS GENERATED MORE WAYS TO CREATE NUISANCE’

An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers, Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”, and Mediator


Statutory nuisance — is ‘an area of the law that affects our everyday life,’ as Lord Justice Lindblom has observed in the foreword to the new fourth edition of this highly regarded legal text. He goes on to remark that ‘statutory nuisance complaints involving ‘prejudice to health’ are now ‘far less common than they were in the nineteenth century.’

If climate change activists find this a tad surprising, they can rest assured, when reading further — that ‘modern life has generated more ways to create nuisance — and a substantial increase in the number of complaints relating to noise disturbances.’

In its many manifestations, statutory nuisance can and does impact on the lives of ordinary people doing ordinary things in their ordinary lives. But coping with ‘nuisance’ requires access to redress and remedy — an aim not necessarily simple to achieve now that ‘the law in this field has become complex’, as Lindblom LJ has also pointed out.

Fortunately, the three co-authors of this book, Robert McCracken QC, Gregory Jones QC and James Pereira QC, have provided a lucid and accessible guide through the maze of complexities that has evolved within the landscape of statutory nuisance.

Published by Bloomsbury Professional, this volume covers virtually everything you need to know — and possibly didn’t know — about this vast area of law. It is also fortunate that the book’s precise, plain English approach — as well as its compassionate ethic — will make it as accessible to lay readers as it is to seasoned practitioners.

For example, the introductory chapter on the nature and scope of statutory nuisance, covers key considerations and a range of other matters including the categories of statutory nuisance. As listed in the Environmental Protection Act 1990, there are more than a few of these and here they all are: the state of premises… smoke emissions… fumes or gasses from dwellings… effluvia from industry, trade or business premises… accumulations or deposits… animals… insects… light… noise from premises… noise from vehicles or equipment in a street… other matters declared any other acts to be statutory nuisances.’

One cannot but agree with the authors, that any or all of the above can be referred to as ‘a disparate collection
of unacceptable states of affairs, most of which put at risk human health, or harm the amenity of neighbours.’

Adding in effect that the legal processes for dealing with and rectifying such harms are often complicated and expensive, the authors in their mission statement offer the assurance that this book ‘is intended to give the general lawyer, environmental health officer and intelligent layman an awareness of the possibilities that is otherwise only available at great expense from specialist practitioners.’

Unsurprisingly, the book is reassuringly practical. Over its more than 800 pages, it deals with, for example, assessing potential nuisance… the process of drafting… preparing evidence… understanding the role of judicial review… and more… including commentary on costs awards. Appendix A (the first of nine appendices) contains a handy collection of forms and draft notices. And in this new edition, there is of course, much new material, including the Anti-Social, Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 and subsequent key cases.

Practitioners will also appreciate the almost thirty pages of tables of statutes, statutory instruments and cases. The extensive footnoting provides a wealth of research resources — and to aid navigation, paragraphs are numbered throughout. ‘Our aim,’ say the book’s co-authors, ‘has been to produce a work useful to courts, companies, councils, community groups and their counsellors,’ adding that this text ‘has been cited in the highest courts.’ It’s almost unarguable that every practitioner involved in this area of law should rush out and buy a copy.

The publication date of this paperback is cited as at 28th November 2019.