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mostly concerning noise of machinery, etc. from factories.
Typical of the type of investigation undertaken were three
specific complaints necessitating a considerable number of
visits and observations concerning, in two instances, the noise
from ‘beat groups’ who played in the evenings at two Youth
Clubs attached to local schools, plus the alleged nuisance
caused by bird scaring equipment in a local farm. Although not
denying that the intermittent explosion caused some nuisance to
nearby occupiers, when measured by our sound meter it was
considerably less than that of the traffic in the adjoining road.
Whilst bye-laws exist in this regard, they only stupilate that the
scarers should not be used during the hours of darkness. In this
latter case, therefore, there was no possibility of any successful
action.
In the former cases— apart from the fact that the activities
complained of were taking place in premises under the control
of the Education Committee— and despite the fact that in one
instance we had the assistance of the Scientific Branch of the
Greater London Council, the volume of noise recorded was not
such as to be considered a ‘nuisance’ within the meaning of
Part III of the Public Health Act, 1936, as amended by the Noise
Abatement Act, 1960. In the other case the group found other
accommodation, thereby abating the alleged nuisance.
The bulk of our complaints are of the ‘one man’s noise is
another man’s music’ category and can only be classified as a
‘noise’ if it is the wrong sound at the wrong time. It is this
individual reaction which makes it such a complex problem.
In this electronic and alleged ‘noisy’ age it becomes almost
essential to obtain details of ‘noise’ by instrumentation, as
any other attempt to measure noise levels is very unreliable—
individual aural facilities varying to a large degree and being
completely unreliable, especially under crossvexamination in a
Court of Law. Added to this is the fact that a persons ‘noise
memory’ would be very susceptible in this age of technology.
For this reason the Department acquired a wide range
octave band filter and an accoustic calibrater for use with our
existing noise meter. This enables the operator to analyse and
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