Sunderland woman whose barking dog made life a misery for neighbours ordered to pay out more than £1,000

South Tyneside Magistrates Court heard Sunderland City Council had taken action against Kathleen Smyth following complaints by neighbours about persistent barking coming from her property in Haven Court, Roker, over a number of years. Officers from the council's neighbourhood enforcement team officers offered neighbours the use of a noise app to record the noise on their mobile phones. Officers also directly witnessed the noise first hand.

In May 2021, more than 50 Noise App recordings were submitted, with the analysis demonstrating excessive dog noise over prolonged periods on a number of different days. When there was no improvement, a Community Protection Warning was issued and a 14 day ‘grace period’ was given to Ms Smyth to reduce the noise output.

But after a further 53 noise app recordings were received, she was served with a Community Protection Notice in October 2021.

"No resident should have to put up with this level of noise”

Environmental Health Officers installed calibrated noise monitoring equipment inside the home of one of the neighbours in November 2021, after more complaints were received.

This led to the conclusion that the barking was frequent in occurrence, continuous, and may be indicative of a statutory noise nuisance .The decision was taken to take the matter to court.

The court heard that despite receiving both a formal warning in the form of a Community Protection Warning, and formal instruction via a Community Protection Notice to significantly reduce the dog's barking, Ms. Smyth had failed to do so.

She was fined £180 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £34 and costs of £800 when she appeared at South Tyneside Magistrates Court on November 29.

Councillor Claire Rowntree, Deputy Leader of Sunderland City Council and Cabinet Member for Clean Green City, said the council was serious about environmental enforcement: : "No resident should have to put up with this level of noise coming from a neighbour's home and I'd like to thank the neighbours who helped us to bring this case to court,” she said.

"We hope this case sends out the message that we are not prepared to tolerate this type of anti-social behaviour."