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Housing and Local Government and the Welsh Office. They were considering the
recommendations in the final report of the Committee on the Problem of Noise
relating to industrial processes giving rise to specially intractable noise problems.
The committee had recommended that these processes should be subject to a
statutory control similar to that exercised by the department's Alkali Inspectorate;
industrial premises where these noisy processes were carried out would require to
be registered and a central inspectorate would be set up to enforce the provision
of the best practicable means for counteracting the effect of the noise.
The Ministry of Labour through its Factory Inspectorate has responsibility in
regard to noise in factories where it may affect the workers in that factory. The
Ministry issued a booklet on the subject entitled Noise and the Worker.
Responsibility for taking action against industrial noise which is a nuisance
to the public will remain, for the time being at least, with local authorities. They
have been told to make arrangements for their officers concerned with this problem
to receive instruction in this subject at appropriate colleges. The Ministry of
Labour has agreed that H.M. Factory Inspectors will make their knowledge and
experience of these problems available to local authorities and the Minister has
called on local authorities to make a determined attack on the problem of industrial
noise.
Still the most common cause of complaint is the proximity of dwelling houses
to industrial premises. Planning errors of the past have resulted in a heritage of
dwelling houses adjacent to factories in parts of the borough. Where the factory
is working 24 hours of the day complaints invariably follow.
It is not a question of which came first. The houses are occupied and the
occupants are entitled to enjoy normal use of the property. These situations require
many visits — usually during the evening and night when noise and vibration, which
often pass unnoticed during the day, are much more noticeable. Visits are necessary
not only to check the extent of the nuisance but subsequently to check the effectiveness
of any measures taken to reduce it.
Much noise can be eliminated, or at least reduced, by relatively simple measures;
but occasionally it presents extremely complex problems. In such cases
expert opinion is needed. Considerable sums of money can be expended if trial
and error is adopted and often without any real improvement in the situation.
In some cases there is no acceptable solution to the problem. Legislation provides
for a defence where the best practicable means have been adopted to combat
noise but often the complainants are not prepared to accept less than its complete
cessation.
During the year the council included a condition in its contracts requiring the
use of sound mufflers on all pneumatic drills used on council work and requested
all the public utility undertakings serving the area to do the same.
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