Are you affected by Noise?

I live within 30m of the centre of town. I receive great benefits from this. Nearly all the places I would want to visit from the park, the bank, the hospital, the schools, the shops, the supermarket and even the hardware shed are but a short walk away. The down side is the noise.

Having said that, because of the nifty way the nearby buildings are constructed I can sit in my garden eating lunch al fresco without noise being a general distraction.

Concorde used to fly over our house (almost) and although the noise was so loud one could feel it and conversation would have to stop – somehow just looking at it fly over took the annoyance away. Now that it is no longer flying the biggest distraction during the day is the sirens. Unfortunately, our high road, being an “A” class road is frequently used by ambulances and less so by police and fire engines. They have not installed the latest broadband siren technology which allows the vehicles in front of the ambulance to hear the siren without everyone in the town having to hear them too.

Early in the morning we get the refuse collection and shop deliveries: five different refuse lorries go down our road of twenty houses – three of them daily. The biggest truck is the daily M&S food lorry but that one has super-quiet refrigeration and zone-specific reversing warning – it puts the ambulances to shame. Late at night we get the voices of the late-night revellers. Because I sleep like a log it does not bother me but if I happen to be up in the night looking at the stars I can hear traffic on the M25 three miles away and the infrequent main line trains.

But for some people noise can be overwhelming and in rural areas the main cause is often road traffic.

As part of our noise campaign we commissioned a survey of traffic noise in rural areas. Written by Lynn Sloman, an erstwhile ETA trustee, and her colleagues at the Transport for Quality of Life consultancy, it uses qualitative research to discover the impact that the increase in rural traffic has on our quality of life in rural Britain. Download a copy of the report here

Even if we are just urbanites we need to have tranquil places in the countryside in which to roam (it would be great to have a few in cities too). I find a walk in the countryside is good for the spirit. To find a spot where one may sit and gaze at the horizon whilst listening to the sounds of nature is an ineffable experience if it can be done without the intrusive noise of the modern world.

We lose such tranquil areas at our peril.