We may assist in resolving the issue if the activities are outside the conditions of various permits or are determined to be excessive or a nuisance under the Public Health & Wellbeing Act.

A nuisance may occur by noise odours pollution and waste which are or are liable to be dangerous to health or offensive but not just annoying.

The determining of a nuisance is varied and open to legal interpretation.

Residential nuisances such as noise odour and other pollution that are coming from a residential property are handled by our authorised officers.

We may look into nuisance management when the offending property is a business or commercial site.

A number of issues are assessed in determining a nuisance including:

• Planning permits - are the activities outside the permit which was issued for the business? If this is so the matter may be referred to our Planning department
• Has the Environment Protection Authority issued a permit or responsible/monitoring the activities?
• Is the nuisance ongoing dangerous to health or offensive and impacting?

If after investigation a nuisance is found to exist we will work with the business owner to rectify the situation possibly through enforcement.

We do not have authority to take action against a nuisance that is perceived to be annoying. These matters should be resolved privately or with the assistance of the Dispute Resolution Centre of Victoria.