Complaints about press noise from a factory unit had resulted in an Abatement Notice from the Local Authority. After the company had spent over £12000 on the building to no avail and with another £65000 expenditure planned as recommended by noise consultants (but without any guarantee that it would solve the problem), they had decided to challenge the notice in court.
However, as our Best Practicable Means (BPM) Noise Control Audit for the Local Authority proved that the best solution was to treat the small number of power presses that were causing the issue at source at a fraction of the cost of legal fees, this approach was adopted by the company. The engineering source control measures reduced the low frequency noise components by 9dB - 24dB, eliminating further complaints. This is a classic case where consultants have not carried out detailed diagnostic work to identify the precise causes of complaints, who do not have the engineering skills needed to design source control modifications and are therefore limited to recommending conventional palliatives that are not best practice at a very high cost to the client, the LA and to the disturbed residents.
