We're proud of our work
We're a team of highly-accomplished acoustic experts with an appetite for complex and challenging problems. Helpful to the core, we leave no stone unturned and we tell it how it is. We're not afraid to do things differently, leading to successful results.
Matt Russell, Project Director
Engena Limited
Thanks again for all your magnificent work in making this project come about. It is no exaggeration to say that Rob Shepherd’s calm, confident and uncompromising performance on the stand, during the Public inquiry, was a critical success factor for which I am personally very grateful. Barrister couldn’t get past you! A job really well done by Hayes McKenzie! Thanks guys!
. In 2015 Lancashire County Council turned down two applications for shale gas exploration sites; one on noise grounds, amongst other factors, and one on non-noise grounds. Cuadrilla Bowland, the company who had applied for planning consent to construct and operate the exploration sites, subsequently appealed the planning decision with the result that a public inquiry was convened to hear the evidence in front of a planning inspector who would make recommendations to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
We were commissioned by Lancashire County Council to review the information which had been submitted on noise by Cuadrilla Bowland's consultants, and the responses of the Council's previous noise consultants, with a view to presenting evidence supporting the Council's refusal of planning permission for the site where noise had been a factor. We found that the original assessments which had been submitted for both sites was significantly lacking but that the situation had been improved by the submission of additional material prior to the planning decisions being taken. We did consider, however, that there were significant question marks over the assessment standards which had been applied and lack of consideration of uncertainty in the noise predictions. The public inquiry ran for 6 weeks at Blackpool Football Club's home ground in Blackpool in February and March 2016 and our noise evidence focused on the issue of the assessment standards and the predictions but also took into account the levels of background noise at the nearest houses to the proposal which had been turned down on noise.
We were commissioned by the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR) at Southampton University, who were in turn contracted by Midland Expressway, who designed, built, operate and maintain the 27 miles of the route, to carry out monitoring of pre-construction noise levels because of our acknowledged expertise in the acquisition, processing and presentation of a large amount of recorded baseline noise data. ISVR staff identified 50 broad areas at which baseline data was required following which we established monitoring locations, mostly in residential gardens, to acquire the relevant data over a two week period at each one.
We were contacted by the developer, Solstice Soft Play, and asked to provide a noise assessment as supporting information for the planning application. Since there are no specific guidelines for assessing this type of noise it was necessary to define an acceptable level of noise within the residential flats, assess likely noise levels generated in a soft play environment and quantify the current level of sound insulation within the building so that an assessment could be made. This work was commenced in 2015 and included a review of relevant guidance/other planning applications (in order to assist in deriving a suitable noise limit), noise predictions (for soft play activity and mechanical ventilation) and a review of information submitted to building control (pre-completion test report).
