Wilson 40 Years On

Strategic Planning(Noise in Towns, and Noise in the Country)

R.M. Thornely-TaylorRupert Taylor Ltd

Few motorways

Britain an industrial nation with poor understanding of hearing damage

Aircraft as noisy as they have ever been

No Environmental Statements

No Leq

Railways in decline and few complaints about noise - trams almost gone

Primitive music reproduction systems

Inadequate professional knowledge about noise

Ice Cream chimes were a problem

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Wilson’s world:

“Paragraph 117”

Construction Noise

Industrial Noise Rating

Motor vehicle noise limits

NNI

Sound Insulation between dwellings

Development Control

Noise Rating of Machines

Pedestrianisation and traffic bans

Mineral workings

Better professional knowledge - better instruments

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to come….

Registration of noisy processes and removal of BPM defence

Towns with raised pavements above sound-absorbent ground floors with windowless walls to be used for vehicles

Roads such as London’s “Motorway Box”

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to that never came….

Paragraph 117:...a very tentative estimate is that the following levels inside living rooms and bedrooms should not be exceeded for more than ten per cent of the time:

Situation Day Night

Country areas 40 dBA 30 dBASuburban areas, away from main traffic routes 45 dBA 35 dBABusy Urban areas 50 dBA 35 dBA

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to come….

Construction Noise (§475):...at present, noise levels outside the nearest building at the window of the occupied room closest to the site boundary, should not exceed:

70 dBA in rural, suburban and urban areas away from main road traffic and industrial noise

75 dBA in urban areas near main road and heavy industrial areas.

Wilson recommended a procedure eventually enacted as Sections 60 and 61 of the Control of Pollution Act 1970

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to come….

Industrial Noise Rating (§383):

Wilson commissioned BRS to find a simpler procedure than frequency analysis to enable a reasonable forecast to be made of the community reaction to noise emanating from factories.

Result: dBA and Corrected Noise Level - BS 4142:1967 style

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to come….

NNI:

Wilson commissioned the first Social Survey in the Vicinity of London (Heathrow) Airport:

Result: NNI and the noise insulation grants scheme

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to come….

Sound Insulation between dwellings:

At the time the Wilson report was published, the “deemed to satisfy” requirements in the Building Regulations had not been made. Only in Scotland was there an insulation requirement.

Wilson placed great emphasis on the need for higher insulation between dwellings.

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to come….

Development Control:

Ten years before Circular 10/73 Wilson recommended (§334):

“…If necessary, further powers should be made available to control development so as to avoid serious nuisance from noise.”

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to come….

Noise Rating of Machines:

A generation before the EU Directives Wilson recommended (§364) the provision of comparable information on the noise levels of machines:

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to come….

Pedestrianisation and traffic bans:

Long before the GLC lorry ban, the widespread use of pedestrian areas and the congestion charge...

Wilson called for towns to be subdivided into areas from which all but very local traffic would be excluded.

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to come….

Mineral Workings:

Wilson recommended control of noise from mineral workings as industrial noise or construction noise, as appropriate.

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to come….

Better professional knowledge - better instruments:

Wilson would be well pleased with today’s breadth and depth of expertise, and the huge growth in the capabilities of instrumentation. He might think we could now use more sophisticated assessment and rating techniques.

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things to come….

Registration of noisy processes and removal of BPM defence:

Wilson thought that if all noisy processes could be registered, there would be no need for a statutory defence of “Best Practicable Means” for all other industrial noise cases.

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things that never came….

Towns with raised pavements above sound-absorbent ground floors with windowless walls to be used for vehicles :

Wilson had a futuristic vision from the centre pages of “Eagle”. He was looking to canalisation of urban traffic, for example on to London’s ill-fated motorway box or Newcastle’s city centre motorways

Wilson’s Strategic Vision:

Things that never really came….

Major reductions in aircraft source noise levels but major growth in numbers and demand for new airports

Major growth in traffic volumes and rural/suburban highways

Railways and trams revived

Tranquil areas shrinking

Noise Mapping

Noise from leisure: music, clay targets, vehicle racing

Vague noise limitation in UK law and practice

...and WHO Guidelines

Wilson in the 21st Century:

Things that are here now….