NSCA Scotland, Scottish Executive, SEPA, REHIS and Napier University came together to offer a free noise and nuisance conference in Scotland on 6 October 2006.
This major event provided an excellent forum for exchanging information, interaction and participation between noise and nuisance practitioners.
Rhona Brankin, Deputy Minister for Environment & Rural Development, responsible for Noise & Nuisance opened the conference and launced a new public information leaflet "Neighbour Noise Between Flats:The influence of laminate and hardwood flooring."
The presentaions given can be downloaded at the following links
Dr Sean Smith, Building Performance Centre , Napier University.
John Boyle, DTZ Consulting and Research,
Martin Key, Envicom Ltd,
Dr Bernadette McKell, Hamilton McGregor and David Connelly, MVA
Ann Philips, BAA.
Workshops on the Enviromental Noise Directive took place in the afternoon and the following is a summary of the feedback from these workshops.
Question 1
Are you content with the Scottish Executive being the Competent Authority for END, or would you like to see local authorities or others take up this role in the future?
Response 1
The general consensus from all six workshops was that the Scottish Executive should remain as Competent Authority. All agreed that the mapping and action planning must be managed and controlled centrally. Local Authorities and other key stakeholders should be involved in assigning hot spots and resulting action plans. Local Authorities felt that their local knowledge would be invaluable when refining noise maps.
Question 2
Who do you think should be involved in action planning?
Response 2
The key stakeholders should be Local Authorities, especially environmental health officers and planners, SEPA, British Aviation Authority (BAA), Transport Scotland, the Public and industry representatives.
Question 3
Who do you think should lead and prepare the plans?
Response 3
Overall agreement was that either the Scottish Executive or SEPA should lead the action planning. Again there was a strong consensus for centrally managed plans with involvement from all key stakeholders as listed in question 2 above.
Question 4
How should the public be involved?
Response 4
Using existing channels e.g. planning, local press, public meetings, designated END website. Roadshows and consultation groups were also suggested. Some people were concerned that the strategic maps may be misinterpreted and result in land blight. Conversely, the maps may raise public expectation as to what local authorities can effectively do regarding managing environmental noise.
It was agreed that it would be vital to ensure that clear caveats should be displayed on each map or the website itself explaining that the maps are only strategic and explain the parameters i.e. 10 meter grids at 4 meters height etc. . The maps will be produced on some occasions using default values which may not accurately reflect the environment. In these circumstances there should be early engagement with the pubic to inform them of the limitations of the maps.
Question 5
What should an action plan contain, and what should it look like?
Response 5
The majority believed that the action plans could be based on plans currently used for example, local air quality strategies/ AQMA's. Others suggested that this might be a good opportunity to devise a new and innovative format which might raise the profile.
The layout should detail the main problems i.e. the numbers of population exposed and to what levels, and prioritise the actions to abate noise where it is excessive. Perhaps make it clear who is responsible for driving the action plans. The action plans should detail timescales and designated responsibilities for each task assigned by the plan. Action plans should be specific to each agglomeration i.e. Glasgow action plan and Edinburgh action plan
Question 6
Can the actions you are currently doing on noise and/or air quality strategy fit into action planning?
Response 6
General consensus was that there should be no need to reinvent the wheel. If good work was currently being done on transport and air quality strategies then this could act as a starter for 10. Various initiatives exist which could feed directly into action planning for example, green transport plans, traffic management and local community planning actions.