Noise pollution

In a busy city like Portsmouth, environmental noise is ever-present, meaning the Council’s environment and public protection service can not ensure peace and quiet or prevent occasional disturbance from noise.

Environment and public protection works with partners such as the anti-social behaviour unit and the police to prevent or mitigate serious or persistently unacceptable levels of environmental noise, by investigating and resolving complaints of noise nuisance.

The seven most common causes of noise complaint are:

Noise from domestic properties
Amplified music from pubs and clubs
Animal noise
Commercial noise, such as from deliveries and equipment
Construction and demolition site noise
Industrial noise
Alarms from premises and vehicles

Around 2,500 noise complaints are received each year, with the majority coming from residents who are suffering noise problems from their neighbours.

Noise problems often occur outside of normal working hours, so our night noise service will investigate recurring evening and night-time nuisance during the following hours:

Monday to Thursday – 6pm to 2am
Sunday- 6.30pm to 1.30am

The service will not operate on Fridays and Saturdays from 27 April 2023. If you are being disturbed by noise on a Friday or Saturday night; and have a live case, please contact your case officer to discuss your concerns.

Upon contacting us we will explain our powers and procedures and provide details of how to contact the duty night noise officer. Due to demand we will only be able to investigate night noise following registration and activation of your complaint.

The council deals with residential, industrial and commercial noise complaints, but is unable to deal with noise made in public places, such as the street – these complaints should be referred to the police by phone on 08450 454545 or the single non-emergency number 101.

For some types of problem, particularly domestic noise, trying to negotiate an improvement with the person causing the noise is often recommended – the Portsmouth mediation service can help with this.

For further information, browse our documents regarding noise below.

If we have contacted you in respect to a complaint we have received regarding noise from your home, please read our FAQs which might be of assistance.

Pubs, Clubs and Commercial Premises

If you are the Owner or Designated Premises Supervisor of a pub, club or commercial premises that is the subject of a noise complaint, please view the advice information for tips on how you can reduce noise.