Environmental Policy and Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Environmental Policy and Law - Essay Example (House of Lords, 2000) The scenario in the house where the Oakleys were tenants was such: the bathroom next to kitchen was devoid of a washbasin, therefore forcing the inmates to wash their hands in the kitchen sink. Contamination of food and foul smell were one of the few complaints that arose from this state of affairs. Taking place over a period of five days, the case closed on the decision that the appeal would be allowed. According to the case, there was a grave health hazard in the state of the premises. It was left upto the Justices to determine whether the risk was sufficient to constitute a statutory nuisance. The case went onto explore the legislative history of statutory nuisance, from the time of its mid-Victorian roots, and concluded that "prejudicial to health" should be interpreted in line with its "sanitary" origins; and that section 79(1)(a) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 is directed to the presence of some feature of premises which is in itself prejudicial to health, by way of being the source of possible infection, illness or disease. (Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, 2000) This brings us to the issue of the origin of nuisance at Common Law. A conclusion to the contrary, i.e.