Service Charter

Environmental health Out of Hours Emergency Service

We will:

• Respond by telephone within 20 minutes to emergency service requests
• Visit, where necessary, to assess problems and collect evidence
• Take enforcement action in certain cases including noise nuisance from the prolonged sounding of burglar alarms

The Environmental Health out of hours emergency service responds to the following categories of service requests:

• Major food poisoning outbreaks
• Major injuries under health and safety legislation
• Dumping of hazardous waste
• Noise from burglar alarms causing widespread nuisance
• Noise complaints where there is an outstanding legal notice
• Noise from industrial, commercial and construction activities where there is widespread nuisance which is likely to continue all night
• Major emergency incidents (e.g. explosions, chemical leaks), in liaison with the emergency services
• Potentially dangerous chemical odours inside a building, e.g. petrol odours

You can help us by:

• Providing any information requested, including your telephone number and other contact details
• Providing reasonable access for investigations and inspections
• Where necessary, providing witness statements for potential legal action

You can contact the out of office hours emergency service by telephoning the Council's Emergency Control Room on telephone number 0161 342 2222.

The Emergency Control Operator will ask for details of your service request, and will page the Duty Officer for Environmental Health, if necessary.  The Duty Officer will need to phone you back so please be prepared to leave your phone number.