Noise Working Group

Mission Statement

To promote a uniform approach to all aspects of Local Authority implementation of relevant legislation in noise and vibration issues, within the Manchester region by means of:

• Organisation of meetings and training workshops;

• Consultation with member authorities;

• Liaison/consultation with external bodies including other regional bodies, central government departments and experts in the commercial field;

• Development of policy through MAPAC Council;

• Practical implementation of MAPAC policies through members of the Noise Working Group and participation in best value and benchmarking projects.

Background

For many years MAPAC has acted as a forum for discussion, debate and the development of good practice through the designated Working Groups. The Noise Working Group was one of the first groups to be developed. Historical and ongoing work areas include:

• Neighbourhood noise;

• Entertainment noise;

• Mediation;

• Noise awareness initiatives;

• Vibration;

• Motorcycle noise.

Environmental Noise Survey

The need to understand what noise issues are of concern to residents within the constituent local authorities is appreciated by officers as an integral part of providing a responsive noise control service. The most recent Noise Survey report completed in 1999 followed up similar surveys conducted in 1992 and 1985. Randomly selected residents were asked to describe how ‘noisy’ their area was (varying from very noisy to very quiet) and indicate the types of noise they heard at home and the level of annoyance of different types of noise. The findings for 1999 indicated that the most annoying source of noise continues to be traffic followed by noisy neighbours. The survey also found that there had been a shift in how respondents describe their area, with 58% indicating they now consider their area to be quiet compared to 56% in 1992 and 31% in 1985.

To read the full report click on the link below

MAPAC Environmental Noise Survey 1999

Current Work Areas

Government’s National Ambient Noise Strategy

In November 2001 the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) published a consultation paper entitled Towards a National Ambient Noise Strategy.  MAPAC is currently working on behalf of its member authorities, in relation to the two main themes of the report. These are:

• The Government’s proposed mechanisms for assessing and then tackling the issues of increasing noise levels (and whether these proposals are appropriate);

• Details of Noise Mapping for England and Wales so that a National Strategy can be formulated to tackle the ever increasing background noise levels caused by road, rail and air transport, and industrial sources.

Other ongoing work includes the following areas:

• Benchmarking of work areas associated with noise and vibration issues for MAPAC Local Authorities; 

• Developing best practice and consistent procedures for dealing with issues such as domestic noise and sounding intruder alarms;

• The noise aspects of the recently introduced Integrated Pollution Prevention & Control regime (IPPC) and the development of liaison arrangements with the Environment Agency in relation to industrial processes that fall under the new controls;

• The Customer Satisfaction Survey - examining customer responses to the way local authorities deal with their complaints.

• Liaison throughout the member authorities over procedures and good practice to support the implementation of the Licensing Act 2003.

Future Work Areas

• Noise mapping – the development of an integrated strategy designed to provide mapped noise data for conurbations with a population of 250,000 or more in response to the current Government’s proposals and the underlying EU Directive;

• Joint working on issues relating to Anti Social Behaviour Orders and the links to noise control powers within the Environment Health Service's member authorities.

Other Information

• The Working Group is an integral part of the wider pollution issues facing MAPAC authorities;

• The Noise Working Group, for example, co-ordinated information on noise issues to provide a full response to the Government's consultation papers on the implementation of the IPPC Regime in conjunction with officers from the other Working Groups.

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