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2 Background and Context

2.1 The European Directive on Environmental Noise

The European Union, Future Noise Policy European Commission Green Paper Brussels 1996, has estimated that around 20 percent of the EU's population, or close on 80 million people, suffer from noise levels scientists and health experts consider unacceptable. They are annoyed, their sleep is disturbed, and adverse health effects are expected. An additional 170 million people experience noise levels causing serious annoyance during daytime.

With this background, there is a clear need to manage environmental noise on a national and local scale.

One of the first steps in embarking on a programme of noise management is to quantify the current noise climate. This provides a solid basis for formulating environmental noise management policy. To ensure parity for this across the European Union the European Parliament and Council adopted Directive 2002/49/EC as described in Section 1 above. This Directive has since been transposed into the Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006

The Directive requires competent authorities in Member States to draw up "strategic noise maps" for major roads, railways, airports and agglomerations, using harmonised noise indicators L _den (day-evening-night equivalent level) and L _night (night equivalent level).

The Directive requires the public be informed and consulted on noise exposure, its effects, and the measures considered to address noise, in line with the principles of the Aarhus Convention. The Aarhus Convention established a number of rights of the public (individuals and their associations) with regard to the environment. The Parties to the Convention are required to make the necessary provisions so that public authorities (at national, regional or local level) will contribute to these rights to become effective.

The END defines "environmental noise" as "unwanted or harmful outdoor sound created by human activities, including noise emitted by means of transport, road traffic, rail traffic, air traffic, and from sites of industrial activity such as those defined in Annex I to Council Directive 96/61/EC of 24 September 1996 concerning integrated pollution prevention and control". Environmental noise can therefore be split into three main categories as follows.

• Industrial noise
• Road and rail transport noise
• Aircraft noise.

2.2 The Legal Context

The Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006 came into force on 5 October 2006 and apply to environmental noise to which humans are exposed, in particular in built up areas, public parks or other quiet areas in an agglomeration, near schools, hospitals, and other noise sensitive buildings and areas. The regulations apply to noise from road, railway, and airport sources, as well as industrial noise. The regulations do not apply to noise caused by the person exposed to the noise, noise from domestic activities, noise created by neighbours, noise at work places, or noise inside means of transport, or due to military activities in military areas.

Noise from domestic activities or noise created by neighbours can be dealt with under the Environmental Protection Action 1990 and the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act 2004. Part 5 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc (Scotland) Act 2004 contains provisions in relation to noise nuisance and in particular gives local authorities additional powers to deal with noise nuisance and tackles the problems of night noise in dwellings. Noise exposure at work is governed by the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 and noise from construction sites is controlled by the Control of Pollution Act 1974. Further information on the legislation referred to here can be obtained from the Noise Level Research Report published by the Scottish Executive on 19 October 2004.

In addition to the above the Draft Noise Management Guide, provides guidance on the creation and maintenance of Effective Noise Management Policies and Practice for Local Authorities and their Officers in Scotland. However, notwithstanding the usefulness of this guide, it is important for the reader to understand the correlation and relationship of all of the aforementioned documents.

If a proposed development is likely to be a source of noise, its location and measures regarding the level, or timing, of noise emissions may be controlled through the planning system. Existing sources of noise, such as road or rail traffic, are not subject to planning control, but they may be an issue to be considered in the planning context of any proposed new development which may be affected by such sources of noise.

Noise from lawful use of existing roads and railways cannot be construed as noise nuisance in terms of the Environmental Protection Act. Noise from new roads can be controlled through the planning process and there is additional legislation in respect of potential compensation and insulation.

At present where noise from a new or "altered" road exceeds a certain trigger level, and meets other qualifying criteria, the Land Compensation (Scotland) Act 1973 provides, through the Noise Insulation (Scotland) Regulations 1975 ( NISR), for insulation work to be carried out, or a grant to be made in respect of that insulation work. "Altered" road is defined within the NISR. Under the NISR, the Land Compensation (Scotland) Act 1973 also confers a right to compensation for depreciation in the value of land caused by public works under certain circumstances. Public works in this context do not include aerodromes.

Noise from new railways may be controlled by conditions attached as part of the Parliamentary Bill process. The railway equivalent of the NISR is the Noise Insulation (Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems) Regulations 1996. However, the provisions of the 1996 Regulations, which came into force under the Land Compensation Act 1973, do not apply to Scotland.

Noise from aircraft in flight is not treated as nuisance. Ground noise at the airport is treated as industrial noise and is controlled by local authorities. Most airport operators operate a sound insulation grant scheme for people living near the airport, and information on the insulation scheme can be obtained from the relevant airport.

The Scottish Government also issues planning guidance on noise related matters in the form of planning advice notes such as Planning Advice Note 56 "Planning and Noise", and Planning Advice Note 50 "Controlling the Environmental Effects of Surface Mineral Workings Annex A: The Control of Noise at Surface Mineral Workings.

In more general terms Planning Advice Note 51: Planning, Environmental Protection and Regulation supports the existing policy on the role of the planning system in relation to the environmental protection regimes. As part of the overall Action Plan process Scottish Government Planning Advice Note 56 ( PAN 56) will be revised to align with the Action Planning Process.

An Environmental Impact Assessment is required for projects which are likely to have significant environmental effects. Noise emissions are one of the impacts which have to be considered in such assessments and, if relevant, measures to mitigate the effects should be proposed. The implementation of the mitigation measures are a matter for the consenting procedure and the responsible authority.

It is important that the Transportation Noise Action Planning process takes into account the existing legislative and guidance framework that exists within Scotland.

2.3 Introduction to Strategic Noise Maps

Strategic noise maps have, in accordance with the requirements of the Scottish Regulations, been produced for round one mapping. The maps can be found at the Scottish Noise Mapping website.

The areas and corridors mapped are as follows.

• All major roads (essentially motorways and A roads) which have more than 6 million passages per year.
• All roads within the agglomerations of Edinburgh and Glasgow which exceed the qualifying flow of 1000 vehicles or more per day.
• Railways with more than 60,000 train passages per year (major railways).
• All railways within the agglomerations of Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The areas noted above are shown in Appendix 1.

A noise map is analogous to a weather map, but instead of mapping temperature or cloud cover, it maps strategic noise levels in terms of coloured contour bands. The noise levels shown on the noise mapping show the annual average noise level predicted to be experienced within the area. It is important to recognise the actual noise levels may well vary during the day, or on a daily basis.

The distance noise propagates from linear sources, such as major roads and railways, depends on the surrounding topography, and features. To take account of this a buffer area of 2km has been created around the main transport sources in the mapping process. This buffer area was determined from the Good Practice Guide for Strategic Noise Mapping and the Production of Associated Data on Noise Exposure and describes the extents of the noise mapping of corridors outwith the agglomerations.

The noise maps are strategic in nature and purpose. Some of the reasons for this are as follows.

• The noise contours presented in the mapping are based on average noise levels for an average day in the year 2005, and are not receptor-specific levels experienced on the ground.
• The noise levels used in the mapping are calculated at a height 4m above ground level and thus do not represent levels at ground, or typical human ear, level.
• The values chosen are determined by the location of the 10m x 10m grid chosen, this may vary for differing layouts.
• Localised features such as garden walls and fences are not taken into account.

The bullet points above highlight the mapping is strategic and therefore cannot be used to determine the noise level for any specific property. It would also be a mistake to use the maps to categorise any site in terms of the Noise Exposure Categories given in the Scottish Government Planning Advice Note 56 ( PAN 56).

The input data required for the calculation of noise levels have been determined by consultation with various organisations including Transport Scotland, Scottish Environment Protection Agency ( SEPA), Network Rail, British Airports Authority, Local Authorities, and others.

The noise maps were produced using computer based three dimensional noise models. This process requires the acquisition of information about the noise source, and the path of propagation. The specialised software used takes account of physical features such as buildings and ground contours. The grid information calculated is then used to create the series of noise contour bands as shown on the Scottish Noise Mapping website.

The END and Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006 refer to noise descriptors, namely L _den, L _day, and L _night.

The day-evening-night level L _den in decibels (dB) is defined by the following formula:

in which:

• L _day is the A-weighted long-term average sound level as defined in ISO 1996-2: 1987, determined over all the day periods of a year,
• L _evening is the A-weighted long-term average sound level as defined in ISO 1996-2: 1987, determined over all the evening periods of a year,
• L _night is the A-weighted long-term average sound level as defined in ISO 1996-2: 1987, determined over all the night periods of a year;

The default values for the day, evening and night time periods are 07:00 to 19:00, 19:00 to 23:00 and 23:00 to 07:00 respectively.

2.4 Data Reported to the European Commission

All member states were required to produce strategic noise maps for major roads, rail, airports, and industry by June 2007. The Scottish Government met this target and the resulting data, as required under Article 10(2) of the Environmental Noise Directive (2002/49/EC), was submitted to the European Commission on 19 December 2007.

As part of the Transportation Noise Action Plan development process the population noise exposure for 'places near' major roads with more than six million vehicle passages a year and places near major railways which have more than sixty thousand train passages per year, outwith the agglomerations of Edinburgh and Glasgow were reviewed. The Scottish Government has defined 'places near' as areas where the noise mapping indicates the L _den exceeds the 55dB noise contour and the L _night exceeds the 50dB noise contour. A summary of this information is presented in Table 2 below.

Table 2 Population Exposure For Noise Sources as Mapped for The Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC ( END)

The formula for Lden is described in Section 2.3 above.

The table shows the estimated population affected by road traffic noise is significantly higher than rail noise. It is also clear that the population numbers predicted to be affected by noise levels decrease significantly as the banding level increases.

2.5 Description of the Area

For areas outwith the agglomerations of Edinburgh and Glasgow, round one of the Environmental Noise Directive requires places near major roads with more than six million vehicle passages a year and places near major railways which have more than sixty thousand train passages per year to be included in an Action Plan.

The noise mapping process has identified that sections of the following corridors or parts of the following areas are within round one of the Transportation Action Planning Process.

• A90 Corridor
• A9 and A90 Corridor
• Aberdeen area
• Alford
• Dumfries
• Edinburgh area outwith the agglomeration of Edinburgh
• Elgin
• Fort William
• Glasgow area outwith the agglomeration of Glasgow
• Huntly
• Inverness
• M8 and A8 Corridor
• M8, M9, A80, M80 Corridor
• M90 and A92 Corridor
• M74 Corridor
• M77 and A77 Corridor
• Oban
• Saltcoats

The spatial extent of these corridors and areas are shown in more detail in Appendix 1.

The nature of the road and rail network outwith the agglomerations results in the areas under consideration consisting of parts of the major arterial routes leading to the cities and larger towns within Scotland. These routes consist of both trunk and local roads, and major railways. The corridors included in round one are listed in table form, and are illustrated in a map, in Appendix 1 of this document.

The Scottish Government works with others to deliver transport policy objectives, and responsibility for road and rail transportation in Scotland is split between a range of organisations including the Scottish Government, Transport Scotland, the Local Authorities, and the Regional Transport Partnerships.

Transport Scotland works in partnership with private sector transport operators, local authorities, the Scottish Government, and the Regional Transport Partnerships ( RTPs). Its remit includes overseeing delivery of the Scottish Government's major transport projects, management of the trunk road network and implementing parts of the National Transport Strategy.

Scotland's trunk road network, covers about 3,500 kilometres of motorways and main roads, 1,900 bridges and 3,700 other structures. The asset is valued at £13.2 billion with an annual upkeep cost of approximately £160 million. The plan land area of trunk roads in Scotland is over 70 square kilometres, of which more than half, the verges and earthworks, is vegetated. This land area is spread over a wide network, passing through many different landscape character areas and habitat types. The soft verges and earthworks can be relatively wide in places, being over 100 m wide at some junctions on motorways.

Local authorities have a duty under the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 to manage and maintain local roads in their area and duties under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to secure expeditious, convenient and safe movement of traffic. Approximately 94% of Scotland's roads, around 56,000km, are the responsibility of local authorities to manage and maintain.

The rail network in Scotland comprises 2,729 kilometres of railway, 23% of which is electrified. There are 344 stations leased by First ScotRail and 4 others operated by Network Rail (Glasgow Central and Edinburgh Waverley), GNER (Dunbar), or a private company (Prestwick International Airport). Two thirds of rail passenger journeys were supported by the west of Scotland commuter network, and one third were elsewhere in Scotland. The rail network in the west of Scotland is the most heavily used commuter network in the UK outside London.

Whilst Transport Scotland are funders of the rail network, the infrastructure is owned by Network Rail, a not for profit organisation. Passenger trains are operated by First ScotRail under a franchise agreement specified and let by Transport Scotland.

Freight plays an important part in Scotland's railways with 13.99 million tonnes of freight being moved in Scotland in 2005/2006, 9.5 million tonnes going to destinations outside Scotland whilst 2.56 million tonnes came into Scotland by rail.

Rail transport can reduce overall carbon emissions by encouraging modal shift from road to rail transport, however this modal shift may have an influence on future rail noise. This influence will require consideration.

It will be important, in delivering this Transportation Noise Action Plan, to ensure coordination and close working between the various organisations and professionals who have responsibility for transportation delivery within the areas covered the plan.

2.6 Requirement for Noise Action Plans

The purpose of this Transportation Noise Action Plan is to describe how those organisations responsible for transportation delivery, and their strategic partners, should deliver their obligations under the Environmental Noise Directive.

The Directive was implemented in Scotland by the Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006.

Action Planning is the process whereby environmental noise, as described in the Regulations, will be managed. Action Plans must be developed for places near the designated major sources. The Scottish Government has defined the term "places near" in terms of those areas receiving exposure levels as reported to the Commission, above L _den 55dB and L _night 50dB contour bands. These bands are shown on the Noise Maps noted earlier in Section 2.3 and are described in Annex VI of the END.

2.7 Health Effects

The need to manage noise implies a potential adverse impact on health. The relationship between exposure to noise and health effects, at noise levels experienced in everyday environments, is a complex one. Hearing loss does not occur in normal environmental noise situations, below a L _Aeq,24hr of about 70dB. Hence, it is normal to consider only "non-auditory" health effects.

There are a wide range of non-auditory health effects that may be associated with exposure to environmental noise. Examples of non auditory health effects include the following:

• Annoyance.
• Sleep disturbance.
• Mental health.
• Cardiovascular effects, hypertension, and heart disease.
• Cognitive performance of children.

Over the years, many reviews of the effects of noise on health have been conducted and published. Some examples are included in the Bibliography in Appendix 7.

Such reviews have considered the "strength of evidence" for each of the main areas of potential effect, in terms of the categories proposed by the International Agency for Research on Cancer ( IARC) as 'Sufficient', 'Limited', 'Inadequate' or 'Lacking'. The categories are defined as follows.

• Sufficient: a relationship has been observed between noise exposure and a specific health effect, chance, bias, and confounding factors can be ruled out with reasonable confidence.
• Limited: an association has been observed between noise exposure and a specific health effect, chance, bias, and confounding factors cannot be ruled out with reasonable confidence.
• Inadequate: the available studies are of insufficient quality, lack the consistency or statistical power to permit a conclusion regarding the presence of absence of a causal relationship.
• Lacking: several adequate studies are mutually consistent in not showing a positive association between exposure and health effect.

When the overall picture provided by these various reviews is considered, and the issue of availability of reliable quantitative relationships between noise exposure and effects (also sometimes called Dose-effect relationships), then three health effects remain which might be used in Action Planning Process are as follows.

• Annoyance.
• Sleep disturbance.
• Cognitive effects on schoolchildren.

Following consideration and review the Scottish Government, have at this stage in the Action Planning process, included the "Annoyance" health effect in the development of the Prioritisation Matrix described in Section 4. However, as research work progresses and further information becomes available from authoritative sources on the remaining two health effects the input data to the Prioritisation Matrix could be enhanced over time.

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