Cattle market wins battle over council noise order

7:20am Friday 16th May 2008

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A 130-YEAR-OLD cattle mart has won its battle to quash a council order which could have forced its closure.

Magistrates ruled that Darlington Borough Council had failed to follow its own guidelines when it issued Darlington Farmers' Auction Market with a noise abatement notice - restricting delivery and collection hours.

They also ordered the council to pay the auction mart's £16,000 legal costs.

The abatement notice prohibited livestock from being delivered to or collected from the mart between 9pm and 7am - which the mart claims would have forced it out of business.

Yesterday, Darlington Magistrates' Court heard from council environmental protection officer Brian Whelan, who said he visited the mart on November 22 at 4.30am to assess noise. He then sat outside the house of the resident who had complained.

He said noise from running engines, cattle being unloaded, staff shouting, and gates banging constituted a statutory nuisance. The order was served following this evaluation.

But it emerged in cross-examination by the mart's lawyer, Simon Catterall, that this was a departure from the council's own guidelines, which state that three visits should be made to assess noise levels and a diary kept.

Mr Catterall told him: "You were very easily satisfied." But Mr Whelan said the guidelines were for irregular noise, such as neighbours playing loud music, rather than a regular event such as the cattle mart.

During the two-day hearing, the council maintained it served the order following a series of complaints from long-distance lorry driver William Goodrick, who lives opposite the Clifton Road mart.

The court heard Mr Goodrick was regularly awoken on Mondays and Thursdays at 4.30am. A petition of residents in nearby streets gathered at the weekend - was submitted to support their case.

Closing for the council, Alex Booth said allegations made by the auction mart during the case which claimed the council was trying to close the mart to secure valuable land in Neasham Road in exchange for a site at Faverdale were "smoke and mirrors".

He said magistrates should concentrate only on the noise issues. The petition proved many people were affected by the noise and Mr Whelan was an experienced officer capable of assessing the noise.

"This is not simply the case of a single grumbler causing trouble," said Mr Booth. "There are streets of people who are entitled to get a good night's sleep."

The mart argued throughout the case it would be forced to close if the order remained in place.

Unloading at 4.30am was crucial to the business, it said, because of the time it took to process animals and the necessity of getting animals to slaughter the same day.

Closing for the mart, Mr Catterall said the assessment should have been over a longer period and the petition was an afterthought. "The investigation was wholly inadequate and as a result the council was wrong to satisfied a statutory nuisance existed. Mr Whelan acted in good faith but he was wrong."

Chairman of the bench Colin Beadle said there should have been at least three noise assessments and evaluations made from the complainant's house would have been more thorough.

"We feel a more through investigation was required before Mr Whelan could be sufficiently satisfied there was a statutory nuisance.

"We feel for these reasons the abatement notice is not justified and the appeal is allowed."

After the hearing, Stephen Aitken, managing director of the auction mart, said: "What the council asked us to do was entirely unreasonable."

A council spokesperson said: "We felt we had carried out a thorough investigation. We are disappointed with the outcome and will now consider our options."

* In yesterday's court report, it stated the noise abatement notice had prohibited deliveries at the mart between the hours of 7am and 9pm. This was incorrect and should have read between the hours of 9pm and 7am. We apologise for the error and any confusion caused.