The Act Commentary on Sections Part 7: Noise Section 86 Deferral of duty to serve abatement notice
229.Section 86 amends section 80 Environmental Protection Act 1990 so as to enable a local authority to defer the issuing of an abatement notice in respect of noise which it is satisfied constitutes a statutory nuisance for seven days, while it takes any other appropriate steps to persuade the person on whom it would otherwise be serving the notice to abate the nuisance or prohibit or restrict its occurrence or recurrence. There is no obligation on the authority to pursue this alternative route – it may still proceed by issuing an abatement notice straightaway if it so chooses. If the authority does defer and the nuisance is not abated after the seven day period (or if the authority concludes before then that it will not be abated within that period), the authority must proceed to serve an abatement notice under section 80(1).