Draft noise action plans: consultation

Quiet Areas

10. The European Noise Directive requires action plans for the agglomerations to include measure that aim to protect quiet areas against an increase in noise. The regulations require Quiet Areas within agglomerations to be identified. The Transport Research Laboratories (TRL) undertook research for The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on the subject of Quiet Areas. The research reported that defining, identifying and appreciating the benefits of preserving quiet or relatively quiet areas in urban conurbations cuts across many different fields including, health, physical and psycho-acoustics, environmental psychology. An important aspect of the research carried out into Quiet Areas has been to establish the positive effect of the natural sounds have on health and well-being.

Following a final review of the action plans it was noted that the agglomerations were to have assessed all CNMAs by 20^th November 2018 and CQAs by 31^st January 2019. It was decided to push these anticipated completion dates to 30^th April 2019 for CNMA and 31^st May 2019 for CQAs.