Noise – ASM Metal Recycling Facility, King’s Lynn

ACCON carried out a comprehensive review of an acoustic report commissioned by Hertfordshire County Council and undertook our own noise assessment for proposals to modernise a metal recycling facility for end of life vehicles.

Whilst reviewing the acoustic report a number of concerns were identified, specifically relating to the background noise measurements and the assessment of both the current and proposed activities.

The purpose of ACCON’s noise assessment was to characterise the ambient noise environment at the closest sensitive receptors. The attended noise measurements identified that the site was dominated by railway noise and road traffic not the activities of the recycling facility.

The installation of a mechanical baler was central to the modernisation of the site. In order to assess the impact of the baler, noise measurements of a baler in operation at an existing ASM site were carried out. This sound power level data was then utilised in a detailed CadnaA noise model to predict the noise levels at several sensitive receptors.

A ‘basket of methodologies’ was used for the noise impact assessment including BS 4142, BS 8233 and WHO guidelines. It was proposed at Public Inquiry that BS 4142 was not an appropriate methodology for this assessment due to the high ambient noise levels from the 30 train movements per hour throughout the day.

It was concluded that a BS 4142 assessment identified that there was only a marginal significance in respect of the likelihood of complaints arising although in reality this was unlikely to be the case as the existing ambient noise levels from other sources were already relatively high in comparison.