LINCOLNSHIRE POTATO STORAGE FACILITY DEFEATS LOCAL COUNCIL IN COURT AFTER NOISE ROW

LEADING agricultural law firm Roythornes Solicitors has successfully secured an important victory for a Lincolnshire-based potato storage facility, overturning an abatement notice served by the local authority following the determination of a statutory noise nuisance.

The source of the noise complaint was fans installed in one of the potato stores on the facility, which were allegedly affecting the residents of a neighbouring property.

After a four-day trial, the district judge ruled that the council had acted unreasonably in serving the abatement notice, finding no statutory nuisance and determining that the council had failed to properly engage with the potato storage facility during the investigation process.

The determination of no statutory nuisance was due to the noise not being of a sufficient level to cause significant interference, and Roythornes’ client had been exercising ordinary use of its land – undertaking agricultural storage activities on land historically used for agricultural storage purposes, in a predominantly agricultural area.

Rebecca Ironmonger, associate at Roythornes and food and environment regulatory expert, said: “We’re very pleased to have represented our client in court and helped enable the business to continue carrying out its operations effectively. Not only were we able to secure the recovery of a proportion of our client’s costs through successful appeal, but we were also able to illustrate the importance of challenging enforcement action by regulators when that action seems to be contrary to common sense and adversely impacts business activity.

“In a proud agricultural area, we work hard to protect the interests of our farming clients and maintain the vital food supply which they work tirelessly to provide for everyone across the country. The potential financial implications for our client, not to mention the potential food waste issues of any future crop being lost, were vast – so this wasn’t just a win for the facility, it was a win for the industry.”

The allegation of statutory noise nuisance arose following the period of wet weather in October 2023, causing the potato crop harvested at that time to be so wet that the fans in the store needed to be on full power for the duration of the drying season – to prevent the entire crop being lost from rotting away.

If use of the fans was found to create a statutory nuisance, the storage facility would have been prevented from using them at their highest fan speed, and possibly at all, in the future, even where they were required.

Following the successful appeal in court, Roythornes’ client said: “I would like to thank the Roythornes team for its expertise, helping to get the verdict we needed for the business. This decision is very important to our business, as existing and future crops could not be properly stored if the notice was upheld.”

During the appeal, Roythornes’ regulatory team worked closely with instructed barrister David Hercock at 6 Pump Court, Clive Bentley at Sharps Acoustics and Simon Alexander at SA Consulting.

To learn more about Roythornes, visit www.roythornes.co.uk.