Planning - noise site blight
High levels of environmental noise from nearby industrial premises were affecting over 18 acres of mixed brown-field and farmland. Combined with the fact that there had already been many noise complaints from nearby residents, the planners assessed the site as unsuitable for housing.
However, the City Council wanted to allow the development if the noise issue could be resolved. Aware of our expertise in industrial and fan noise control, they suggested that the Planning Consultants contact us for a second opinion to see if there was a practical solution.
Diagnosis
We acquired information from the council about the history of complaints and considered that it was very likely that it would be practical to reduce the noise across the site by applying permanent engineering noise control measures to the problem items of plant.
Noise control implementation
Based on our judgment, the developers invested in our expertise to evaluate the noise control options in detail and to design permanent solutions (including our Quiet Fan noise control technology for the problem fans) that could be implemented (paid for by the developer) at each of the 4 companies involved. The companies were extremely happy with the process as this resolved the previous and ongoing noise complaints at no cost to them.
The environmental noise environment for nearby residents was dramatically improved and the council saved on future noise complaint investigation resources.
The noise mitigation measures permanently eliminated the environmental noise problem, allowing the "noise planning blight" to be lifted. Consequently, planning consent was granted for 200 properties to be built on a site previously considered too noisy for housing. This not only made the site worth many £millions at a cost to the developers of less than £45k, but it also provided 200 much-needed houses.
