The Scottish Government

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1. OVERVIEW

1.1. Aims

This guide has been produced to assist Local Authorities throughout Scotland to make decisions on the development of robust policies and how policies can be effectively implemented across the range of noise functions for which they are responsible.

The specific aim of the Scottish Executive, supported by REHIS, was to produce a guide that will help local authorities to develop a common approach and consistency towards enforcement of the relevant statutory provisions as these relate to community noise.

It has never been the intention that every Local Authority should slavishly adopt every aspect of this Guide. Instead the guide recognises the wide diversity of local authorities across Scotland, in terms of population density, rural and urban character etc, which means in turn that noise problems themselves may vary considerably in number, type, complexity and scale between even broadly similar local authorities. Consequently, it is anticipated that local authorities will need to carefully consider the contents of this guide and select those parts that are pertinent to the needs and circumstances of their district, ignoring those elements of the guide that they do not consider relevant. In so doing, the objective of providing noise services that are appropriate to each individual Local Authority and the communities and businesses that they serve should be achieved.

The Guide is intended to be a dynamic document and will be reviewed periodically to ensure its currency. It is designed to be practical and accessible to all users and in particular it aims:

• to encourage local authorities to develop noise policies and practices to meet their statutory obligations, informed by an objective assessment of the needs and circumstances of the communities and businesses in their district;
• to provide examples of 'good practice' in dealing with noise issues, drawn from the very real experiences of a cross section of local authorities across Scotland, as an aid to sharing experience and knowledge. What constitutes "good practice" can vary from authority to authority depending on local circumstances and needs. The examples of "good practice" provided in this guide are drawn from many different local authorities across the whole of the UK, and as a consequence reflect the interpretation of legislation and the needs and circumstances of the particular authority that devised them. These examples of "good practice" are provided as models for consideration by other noise service managers for adoption either unchanged or as a reference for developing different bespoke systems, procedures and practices tailored to the needs and circumstances of their own authority; and
• to encourage local authorities to critically review their noise services, including the allocation of resources to this function, within a Best Value framework (or any appropriate alternative model) and to determine where improvements can be made, having due regard to the particular needs and circumstances of their areas.

1.2. Application and Scope

This Guide is primarily aimed at managers of local authority Environmental Health Services throughout Scotland who are responsible for enforcing statutory controls with regard to Community Noise.

The Guide may also be useful to other local authority departments concerned with this function and by other professionals engaged in this field of work, e.g. environmental health officers employed by the Scottish Environmental protection Agency ( SEPA). The scope of the guide is intended to address:

• neighbour and neighbourhood noise (including noise in the street*);
• commercial and industrial noise, including construction site noise;
• public entertainment noise; and
• recreation and leisure noise.

*In this context "noise in the street" only includes noise from vehicles, machinery and equipment, and excludes noise from traffic and persons.

This guide is not intended to address operational transportation noise, as control of noise from these sources is generally beyond the remit of the legislation available to local authority noise service managers. Nevertheless, Noise Service Managers may well have a role to play in providing advice with respect to the impacts of new roads and specific traffic management measures. In this context their interaction with Transportation Managers and Highways Engineers will be key in ensuring that transportation noise does not unduly affect those living in close proximity to transportation corridors. With respect to railways there are no controls that specifically relate to noise from railways other than the powers within the Control of Pollution Act 1974 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990 Sections 80 and 82 where construction noise is an issue.

Whilst care has been taken to make this guide as wide reaching and as comprehensive as possible, the guidance cannot address every particular circumstance and eventuality. Instead it provides a broad framework to inform the scoping of noise services to address the noise problems that may arise within a local authority's district.

As mentioned in Section 1.1, not all elements of the guide will be equally applicable to every local authority and some elements of the guide will be more appropriate compared to others. The intention is for the Guide to provide a broad framework that is instructional when local authority noise service managers are designing, operating and evaluating noise services appropriate to the needs and circumstances of their district.

There are a wide variety of Local Authority types within the thirty-two Authorities within Scotland. By the very nature of their location, the demographics of the Authority and the size of the resident population, there will be differing demands on their noise services. Table 1 identifies the population (Source: 2001 Census) by reference to Figures 1 and 2, which illustrate the very large differences in the areas of the Local Authorities. This results in a wide range of population densities from 0.13 people /hectare in Argyll & Bute to 32.93 people/hectare in Glasgow City. This difference in area served can in itself result in less centralised services and potentially a disparity in the way in which the service is delivered even within the same Authority.