« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
1. Introduction
1.1 The Purpose of This Document
The purpose of this Glasgow Agglomeration Noise Action Plan is to describe how The Scottish Government and its partners propose to deliver their obligations under the Environmental Noise Directive. The European Parliament and Council Directive for Assessment and Management of Environmental Noise 2002/49/EC, more commonly referred to as the Environmental Noise Directive ( END), was published in the Official Journal of The EU in July 2002. This directive deals with noise from road, rail, and air traffic, and from agglomerations. It focuses on the impact of such noise on individuals, complementing existing EU legislation, which sets standards for noise emissions from specific sources.
The three main objectives of the Directive are as follows:
- To determine the noise exposure of the population through noise mapping.
- To make information available on environmental noise to the public.
- To establish Action Plans based on the mapping results, to reduce noise levels where necessary, and to preserve environmental noise quality where it is good.
To embrace their developed responsibility to deliver the requirements of the END legislation the Scottish Executive published the Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006. The Scottish legislation describes a two round process to manage environmental noise. This is now well underway and as can be seen by reference to Table 1. Task One and Task Two have been completed and this document is intended to facilitate compliance with Task Three.
Table 1: Key Tasks in the Scottish Legislation - Round 1
Task | Detail | Due Completion Date | Completed |
|---|
One | Produce strategic noise maps for major roads, rail, airports, and industry | June 30 2007 | Yes (see www.scottishnoisemapping.org ) |
|---|
Two | Prepare guidance on the preparation and content of noise Action Plans | July 18 2007 | Yes (see www.scottishnoisemapping.org ) |
|---|
Three | Competent Authorities to draw up Action Plans to manage noise | July 18 2008 | Yes Underway |
|---|
The strategic noise maps referred to in Table 1 are the starting point for Action Planning. Their initial analysis, using a prioritisation matrix developed as noted in Section 4 of this document, provided a focus for deriving actions to reduce noise where it is deemed there is a need to manage noise. Where the prioritisation matrix indicated a possible need to manage noise in the area the area was declared as a Candidate Noise Management Areas ( CNMA), as described in Section 4. A methodology has been developed to determine whether or not the CNMA will actually become a noise Management Area ( NMA) and this process is described in Section 4.
A description of the European Directive on Environmental Noise is provided in Section 2 together with a brief outline of the Scottish Legislative framework relative to environmental noise. This section also provides a overview of the strategic noise maps and provides the rationale behind the selection of areas and sources that have been mapped to date.
Section 3 provides an explanation of the Action Planning process and the infrastructure of the groups set up to assist in the delivery of an Action Plan for Scotland. In reading the Action Plan it is important to bear in mind that Action Plans manage noise issues and effects, including noise reduction if necessary. The Action Plans for the agglomerations of Glasgow and Edinburgh also aim to protect quiet areas against an increase in noise.
The methodology for determination of Quiet Areas has been described in Section 5.
Section 6 sets out the planning framework relevant to the Action Planning process and describes the alignment of existing initiatives to be incorporated into the Action Planning process.
Finally Section 7 describes the next steps in the noise mapping process, with Section 8 detailing reference documents.
« Previous | Contents | Next »