Find out about environmental nuisance and how to report any issues.
We want to make sure North Lincolnshire is a safe, green and clean place to live. Sometimes the actions of other residents can affect your enjoyment of your property or neighbourhood.
If you are affected by waste in your neighbour’s garden, we can help.
To report a problem garden or property, please email us at environmental.health@northlincs.gov.uk. You will need to attach a photograph of the issue you are complaining about along with the address it relates to.
For example, if you want to complain about waste or dog faeces in your neighbour’s garden, please email us on environmental.health@northlincs.gov.uk and include:
If we find that we need to take action against your neighbour or the person you are complaining about, we have various options available to us.
These options include:
If we find that a problem garden is a statutory nuisance, we will usually serve an Abatement Notice. We have power to deal with statutory nuisance in this way under Section 79 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Once the Abatement Notice has been served, any further “breaches” (recurrence of waste) of the Notice are a criminal offence, making the person liable to prosecution.
If the problem cannot be dealt with as a statutory nuisance, we may be able to serve a Community Protection Notice.
Community Protection Notices are issued in accordance with the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. Notices will always be preceded by a formal written warning (a Community Protection Warning). These usually give the person they are served on a fixed period of time to do something – for example, make improvements to a garden.
Breaches of Community Protection Notices can be dealt with via Fixed Penalty Notices (fines) and/or prosecution.
If you live in a property owned by Ongo Homes, or the neighbour causing a nuisance lives in an Ongo property, you must report your concerns to them first. If further action is needed, the Housing Officer will refer the complaint to us for action.
To make a complaint, you can either visit the Ongo website or call Ongo on 01724 297700.
Responsibility for all private sewers and lateral drains which connect to the public sewer system lies with the water and sewerage companies.
We do not own any drainage pipe work other than in respect of being a landlord, and we do not provide a service to unblock drains.
There are two water and sewerage companies that serve North Lincolnshire. They are Anglian Water and Severn Trent.
The water authority map highlights the areas of responsibility of sewers between Anglian Water and Severn Trent.
The Drainage plan (PDF, 29.9Kb) shows the responsibility for pipe work on your property and the pipework which leads to your property. However, this is indicative and does not cover all aspects of drainage layouts.
If a drain is blocked (the pipe work serving a single property) it is the responsibility of the owner or occupier to arrange a clearance at their own cost.
If the public sewer is blocked it is the responsibility of the water and sewerage company.
We can offer free advice on drainage problems in partnership with landlords and water and sewerage companies.
Where necessary and appropriate we will take enforcement action in order to resolve drainage problems, and recover all of our costs in doing so.
For information about flooding and related responsibilities in North Lincolnshire, please visit the flooding and drains section of our website.