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Consultation on proposals for transposition and implementation of Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 June 2002 relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise

2. Introduction

2.1. Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of environmental noise is often referred to as the Environmental Noise Directive (END). The END, adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, on 25 June 2002, was to be transposed into law by the Member States of the EU by 18 July 2004.

2.2. The END will be implemented separately in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This consultation document is solely concerned with the transposition of the END in Scotland. This consultation exercise focuses on what we propose to include in the implementing regulations in order to meet all the obligations of the END. Separate consultations will be carried out in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

2.3. Regrettably, due to the large number of complex technical details that have had to be resolved before this consultation could be released, it has not been possible to comply with this deadline in the UK. This is disappointing but it is the intention throughout the UK to ensure that the transposition takes place as soon as possible in 2005.

The END – what is it meant to do?

2.4. The aim of the END¹ (the text of which can be found at Annex A) is to define a common approach across the European Union with the intention of avoiding, preventing or reducing on a prioritised basis the harmful effects, including annoyance, due to exposure to environmental noise (See paragraph 2.10 for sources covered). This will involve:

• informing the public about environmental noise and its effects;
• the preparation of strategic noise maps for: large urban areas (referred to as 'agglomerations' in the END and in this document), major roads, major railways and major airports as defined in the END²; and
• preparing action plans based on the results of the noise mapping exercise. Such plans will aim to manage and reduce environmental noise where necessary, and preserve environmental noise quality where it is good.

2.5. A strategic noise map is a method of presenting complex information on sound levels and/or exposure in a clear and simple way either on a physical map or in a database. Action plans are plans which will contain a number of measures that will be taken to manage noise and reduce it where necessary. Further detail on maps and action plans can be found in Chapters 3 and 4 respectively.

2.6. The noise mapping and action planning process is to be taken forward on a five-yearly rolling programme. The first round of mapping and action planning applies to the largest of the agglomerations (including the industries and ports within them), the busiest major roads and railways and all major airports³. During the second round all agglomerations, major roads, major railways and major airports as defined by the END will be mapped and then action plans will be developed for them. The key dates over the next ten years are as follows:

* As stated in paragraph 2.1, it has not been possible to comply with this deadline but it is the Scottish Executive’s intention to ensure that the transposition takes place as early as possible in 2005. We do not believe that this will necessarily delay the meeting of any other deadlines listed above.

2.7. Thereafter, according to the END (Articles 7, paragraph 5 and 8, paragraph 5), the maps and action plans will be reviewed, and revised if necessary, at least every five years. The END specifically requires that action plans should be revised within the five year windows, if necessary, after any ‘major development’. It is the Scottish Executive’s intention to also require the revision of the strategic noise map (or the relevant parts of such a map) in these circumstances as a means of informing the revision of an action plan. It is therefore possible that we may have to review a map (or part of a map) and action plan due to a major development between rounds of mapping.

2.8. The END also ultimately requires the use of a common method for assessing noise across the EU (Article 6, paragraph 2). Up to now there has not been any harmonised approach within the EU on the noise indicators used to assess noise. The END stipulates (Article 5, paragraph 1) that those responsible for mapping should use the new noise indicator L_den and also L_night - an eight hour period Leq. For definitions of L_den, L_night and Leq, please refer to Annex G of this document. Until such time as there are common assessment methods for calculating L_den and L_night noise levels, existing national methods, data and noise indicators can be used and adapted where necessary to provide results in terms of L_den and L_night. These methods should be able to give equivalent results to those obtained with the interim methods set out in paragraph 2.2 of Annex II (Article 6 paragraph 2).

2.9. The national data used for calculation of END metrics must not be more than three years old at the completion date. A fuller discussion of noise indicators can be found at Annex G. The Scottish Executive’s proposals for adoption and assessment of noise indicators are set out in more detail in Chapter 3 and are also referred to in the separate noise source chapters (Chapters 5 (Roads), 6 (Rail), 7 (Aircraft) and 8 (Agglomerations, including industry and ports)).

Environmental Noise

2.10. 'Environmental noise' is defined in the END (Article 3(a)) as:

'unwanted or harmful outdoor sound created by human activities, including noise emitted by means of transport, road traffic, rail traffic, air traffic, and noise 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'⁵.

2.11. The END applies to environmental noise to which humans are exposed, but it specifically excludes noise created by the exposed person, noise from domestic activities, noise created by neighbours, noise at workplaces, noise inside means of transport and noise from military activity in military areas (Article 2).

2.12. Discussion with the European Commission regarding the interpretation of the extract regarding industrial noise in Article 3(a) has indicated that Member States are expected to go beyond the industries included in Annex I to Council Directive 96/61/EC. The Scottish Executive is proposing as an option a different definition of industry to that proposed for the rest of the UK and will go beyond those industries included in the Annex to provide a complete picture. This proposal is discussed in greater detail in Chapter 8.

Transposing and Implementing the END

2.13. A Directive is a form of European Community legislation which is not directly applicable in Member States but instead has to be ‘transposed’ into Member State’s own legislation. Directives are binding only as to the result to be achieved and therefore leave flexibility to individual Member States in how they seek to meet the requirements of the END. It is intended that in Scotland, transposition will be by way of Regulations issued under Section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972 (referred to throughout this document as the Regulations).

2.14. In European legislation the UK is deemed to represent the Member State. However, in the UK, environmental noise is a Devolved matter and is addressed by the Devolved Administrations separately. For this reason the Devolved Administrations will be taking forward the requirements of the END in their respective areas.

2.15. We are required to designate the competent authorities and bodies responsible for implementing the END (Article 4). However, Member States remain ultimately responsible for ensuring that the requirements of END are met (Article 14). The competent authorities will be responsible for aspects such as:

• making and, where relevant, approving noise maps and action plans for agglomerations, major roads, major railways and major airports;
• delimiting quiet areas within agglomerations and open countryside and
• collecting noise maps and action plans.⁶

2.16. For reasons of simplicity the Scottish Executive proposes to issue Regulations that:

• give the Scottish Ministers the responsibility of preparing, reviewing and revising maps, except in the case of mapping relevant⁷ non-designated⁸ airports (see Chapter 7), where the airport operators will fulfil this role; and
• give the Scottish Ministers the responsibility of preparing, reviewing and revising action plans except in the case of all airports where the airport operators will fulfil this role.

2.17. This would mean that all legal responsibilities for mapping and action planning under the END for roads, rail and agglomerations would rest with the Scottish Ministers (with the exclusion of airports as specified above). In fulfilling these responsibilities he/she may well enter into agreements with other authorities and/or organisations to exercise functions relating to the production of maps and action plans on his/her behalf, both in terms of the provision of data and for the preparation of the maps and plans. In this case, final responsibility for delivery would nevertheless still remain with the Scottish Ministers.

2.18. For airports we propose a slightly different approach. Relevant airport operators would be competent authorities for mapping at non-designated airports. The relevant airport operators would be designated as competent authority for the action planning at all airports. This would mean that in most cases the airport operators would be legally responsible for the production of the documents. However, in all cases where the airport operators are competent authorities for producing maps or plans, the Scottish Ministers would be designated as competent authority for collecting the maps and plans in order to ensure that they were prepared in accordance with the requirements of the END. Once they had been found to meet the Directive’s requirement the Scottish Ministers would submit the maps and plans to the European Commission.

2.19. The rationale for this in relation to each of the defined transport sources and to agglomerations is discussed in detail in each of the source chapters (Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8). The relevant authorities or organisations would be consulted before any requirements, legally binding or otherwise, would be placed on them.

2.20. The Regulations will also cover issues such as the definition of major roads, major railways and agglomerations, set out which noise computational methods would be used and the general procedure by which noise maps and action plans should be prepared.

The END in a wider context

2.21. The END is a complex Directive relying heavily on the collection of data and computer technology to support the development of noise maps and action plans. As computer technology has developed, the way in which data are collected and managed by different organisations has changed, and continues to change rapidly. This trend is likely to continue. This means that an approach which is appropriate today for preparing noise maps and action plans may not be so in the future.

2.22. At a European level there will also be developments over the longer term. The Commission intends to establish common assessment methods in due course, although these will not be available for the first round of noise mapping (Article 6 paragraph 2). The Commission will then require Member States to use the new and harmonised methods for the calculation of noise levels using the required noise indicators. Projects such as Harmonoise, and Imagine⁹ will start to deliver these new and harmonised methods. The implementation of the END will be reviewed by the Commission in 2009 after the first round of noise mapping and action planning has been completed. This may result in changes to the approach required to implement the second round of mapping and action planning.

2.23. The need for flexibility is also recognised by the Working Group on the Assessment of Exposure to Noise (WG-AEN) which advises the European Commission on noise mapping and related issues. WG-AEN has produced a Good Practice Guide (GPG) (Version 1, 5 December 2003)¹⁰ which aims to assist Member States and their competent authorities to successfully undertake strategic noise mapping and produce the associated data on noise exposure as required by the END. This acknowledges that some data may not be available for the production of maps and identifies a number of options to overcome this. While some options may not produce maps as accurately as those which could be produced by the use of more detailed data, the results should still be sufficiently robust for the production of strategic noise maps and the prioritisation of measures in the action plans.

2.24. The GPG specifically addresses those requirements of the END associated with the first round of strategic noise mapping that must be completed by 30 June 2007. Version 1 of the WG-AEN GPG addresses 20 general and specific technical challenges that are raised by the contents of the END. In addition, it provides 16 toolkits that contain possible solutions to many of these challenges particularly those that concern the acquisition of the source related, geographic, demographic and meteorological input data required for strategic noise mapping and the production of associated data on noise exposure.

2.25. Given the number of potential changes which are expected over the course of time, it seems wise at this stage to implement a system, through our regulations, that is as flexible as possible. The Scottish Executive, therefore, seeks to adopt the most flexible approach possible with a view to allowing adaptation of the system in the face of potential future developments. If adaptation necessitates legislative changes in the future, such changes would be preceded by further consultation.

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