Government to map England’s noisiest roads

Over 20 of England’s major towns and cities are to get maps charting noise levels in the area in new research announced by the government.

The Noise Mapping England Project is part of the first stage of the development of a National Ambient Noise Strategy.

It is hoped the project will:

• calculate the scale of public exposure to the main sources of environmental or background noise
• develop realistic objectives for noise management;
• develop co-ordinated and cost-effective action plans to reduce noise;
• enable plans to be tested to try and understand in detail their likely impact;
• making more effective use of local, regional and national planning procedures to control and reduce noise;
• monitoring the effectiveness of action plans and planning procedures;
• monitoring trends in environmental noise;
• providing a platform for further research.

The cities and towns which will be noise mapped are: Bristol, Bournemouth, Brighton, Reading, Portsmouth, Southampton, Southend, Leicester, Nottingham, Coventry, Stoke on Trent, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Birkenhead, Blackpool, Preston, Tyneside and Teeside, along with the West Midlands and West Yorkshire.

A map has already been produced for London.

Local Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said the potential uses for the maps were “enormous”. He said: “By creating noise maps we can get a better understanding of the overall situation and target our efforts to tackle unwanted noise where it is really needed.

“Unwanted noise has probably affected us all at one time or another – it can cause stress and annoyance, interrupt conversation and disturb sleep.

“By creating more of these maps we can help government, local authorities, planners and the public better understand noise levels and work more efficiently to reduce the number of people who are exposed to high levels of noise.”

(KMcA/SP)