Burglar and car alarms

Noise Nuisance - sign up for the council's Audible Intruder Alarms contact database.

The council is responsible for stopping intruder alarms if they are causing annoyance.  As part of this, we are encouraging local businesses and residents with loud intruder alarms installed in their properties, to join a new alarm contact database, with the aim of stopping alarms disturbing the neighbourhood if they go off by accident.

Your responsibility

Do you have an audible intruder alarm installed on your business or personal residence?

If your intruder alarm is set off accidentally, you not only risk annoying your neighbours, but also paying the price if we have to silence it.

In certain circumstances, if we cannot contact or locate the owner of the property where an alarm is sounding, we can obtain a warrant and force entry to the premise to silence the device, and then re-charge the owner the cost of the work to silence the alarm.

Join the alarm contact database

The council has developed an online database where owners of loud intruder alarms can register their contact details, with the aim of preventing drastic action being necessary. If the council receives a complaint about an alarm, it can use the database to contact the relevant person in order to have the alarm switched off as soon as possible.

How to join

To join the database, the owner of the premise needs to nominate two key holders who the council could contact 24/7 in the event of the alarm going off. The service is free and confidential, and only the owners and authorised council officers can access the information.

For further information and how to register contact Environmental Health.

Apply online

You can also register to join the alarm register online

Premises Alarm FAQs

Q. How can I prevent my house alarm causing a problem?

• Ensure a qualified engineer installs your alarm.
• Look after your alarm and make sure it is maintained.
• Make sure your alarm has a cut out to stop it ringing for long periods. (20 minutes is considered a reasonable time. It should not be able to sound again until it is reset.)
• Join the council's alarm contact database

Q. An alarm is sounding and causing me a disturbance. What can I do?

• If you suspect a false entry to the property contact the police immediately.
• Talk to neighbours to see if there are any key-holders and when the owners are expected to return.
• If the alarm continues after 20 minutes then contact the Environmental Health

Car Alarms

If you would like to make a complaint about a ringing car alarm, it would help us if you could please note the following details before contacting us.

• the address or location of where the car is parked
• the make, model and colour of the vehicle
• the licence plate number
• details of the owner (if know)

What actions will we take?

If the alarm is still sounding (they usually reset after sounding for 20 minutes) we will visit and assess whether or not the noise is a statutory nuisance.  If we find that the noise is a 'statutory nuisance' we will serve an abatement notice. This notice will give the owner of the car reasonable period of time to stop the noise nuisance.

If the owner hasn’t returned to the vehicle and deactivated the alarm, we will contact a garage and arrange for them to deactivate the alarm. If the alarm cannot be deactivated in a way that leaves the car secure the garage will tow the car to a pound. We will inform the Police of the vehicles whereabouts.

We will charge the owner for the time and money spent deactivating the car alarm. 

Report a problem online

Details about how to make a complaint and how the council will deal with it can be found in the report a problem section.