Environmental Protection

Manchester Port Health Authority is a Regulator under the Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999 and the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016. The Authority is also authorised to provide legislative controls under the Clean Air Act 1993 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

Environmental Permits 

Environmental permitting is a system for regulating business activities which may have an impact upon the environment and human health.

Manchester Port Health Authority are responsible for issuing permits for certain listed activities that take place within the jurisdiction of the Authority as part of the Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) regime. Environmental Permits are divided into 3 categories:

Part A (1) – Large, potentially high polluting activities – these are regulated by the Environment Agency.

Part A (2) – Medium scale activities – these are regulated by Local Authorities/Port Health Authorities in relation to emissions to land, water and air, energy and raw materials, waste minimisation, accident prevention and noise emissions.

Part B – Smaller and less energy intensive activities – these are regulated by local authorities/port health authorities and are subject to the control of emissions to air only.

There are currently no Part A (2) activities within the Manchester Port Health Authority jurisdiction however, there are 9 part B activities covering a wide range of industry.

You must apply for an environmental permit if you operate a regulated activity within England and Wales. Each installation will be issued with a permit detailing specific conditions aimed at preventing and controlling pollution. These conditions are legally binding and there are strict penalties for contraventions.

Applications for a permit must be made on an approved application form and must include all specified information. A fee is payable for this application. An annual subsistence charge will also apply.

A copy of the legislation can be found at http: www.legislation.gov.uk

If you would like to apply for a permit, please complete the following application form:

application-for-a-part-b-permit

Permits are subject to periodic review and the installations are inspected on a risk assessed basis by the Port Health Officers.

List-of-Charges

Statutory Nuisance 

Statutory nuisance is a legal term meaning that the actions of someone else are substantially affecting the reasonable enjoyment of your property. This goes beyond someone causing a level of annoyance, but something that can be deemed to be caused by unreasonable behaviour or neglectful actions on a frequent basis.

There are a number of types of nuisance. The most common types are:

• Noise
• Smoke and dust
• Odour
• Accumulations

The Authority has a duty to investigate complaints of alleged nuisance. Please note, if you complaint relates to noise, please contact the relevant Local Authority for your area.

Upon receipt of a complaint we will visit the business responsible and offer advice on resolving the problem (unless the incident is extremely serious). If this approach is unsuccessful we will undertake a formal investigation. This may include us carrying out monitoring and observations from your premises and we will ask you to keep records of how you are affected. If we are satisfied that an offence has been committed or a nuisance is established we have various legal powers to resolve the problem.

For the Authority to be able to take formal action to deal with a nuisance, we will need to gather evidence to substantiate the complaint. If the business in question fails to deal with a nuisance once they have been formally requested to do so by the Authority, they can face prosecution in court and a fine.

All complaints that we receive are confidential and your details will not be disclosed to the business subject to complaint unless we have to take the case to court. Please be aware however that the Authority will not investigate anonymous complaints.

A copy of the legislation can be found at: www.legislation.gov.uk

Complaints relating to dark smoke

The Clean Air Act 1993 makes it an offence to emit dark smoke unless specifically permitted by the regulations. This Act applies to both shore side premises and ships which lie within the seaward limits of the territorial waters of the UK. The Clean Air (Miscellaneous Provisions) (England) Regulations 2014 permit dark smoke to be emitted for limited periods. This includes the defence of lighting up from cold, when all practical steps have been taken to minimise the emission or the failure of a furnace or associated equipment, where this could not have been reasonably foreseen. Upon receipt of your complaint officers will investigate for the purpose of establishing if an offence has been committed.

Details of Public Register

For all information regarding Details of Public Register, please contact the Chief Port Health Officer at Manchester Port Health Authority via the contacts page. See the Contact Us page for more information.