Draft Noise Action Plan 2024 – 2028
The draft Noise Action Plan 2024 – 2028 has been prepared by Sligo County Council for the purpose of managing noise issues and their effects. The Noise Action Plan for Sligo covers areas affected by environmental noise as identified by strategic noise mapping.
The Plan has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of EU Directive 2002/49/EC (also known as the Environmental Noise Directive or END). This EU legislation was transposed into Irish law by the Environmental Noise Regulations 2005, SI No. 140 of 2006.
The aim of the Directive and the Regulations is to provide for the implementation of a European Commission approach to avoid, prevent or reduce on a prioritised basis the harmful effects, including annoyance, due to exposure to environmental noise.
Environmental noise is unwanted or harmful outdoor sound created by human activities including noise emitted by means of transport, road traffic, rail traffic, air traffic and noise and noise in agglomerations over a specifies size. Types of noise not included in the Regulations are noise that is caused by the exposed person, noise from domestic activities, noise created by neighbours, noise at workplaces or noise inside means of transport.
Noise Mapping Bodies and Action Planning Authorities were assigned responsibility under the Regulations to draw up noise maps and prepare action plans for noise from the following noise sources:
- Sections of major roads above a flow threshold of 3 million vehicles per annum
- Sections of Major Railway above a flow threshold of 30,000 train passages per year (No such sections in Sligo),
- Major airports with more than 50,000 movements per year – a movement being a takeoff or landing (Not applicable in Sligo),
- Agglomerations with more than 100,000 inhabitants (Not applicable to Sligo)
Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII), as the noise mapping body for major national roads, has prepared strategic noise maps for the section of road in Sligo that have been confirmed by verified vehicle count data to have more than 3 million vehicles per annum. Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has estimated from noise mapping and geodirectory data, that the approximate number of individuals located within the action planning areas in County Sligo where the noise levels exceed the Ldenvalue of 53dB and L value of 45dB are 11,257 and 10,914 respectively.
The purpose of this Action Plan is to endeavor to manage the existing noise environment and protect the future noise environment within the action planning area. Management of the existing noise environment may be achieved by prioritizing areas for which further assessment and possible noise mitigation may be required. Protection of future noise environment may be achieved by acoustical planning, which further incorporates noise into the planning process via measures such as land use planning, development planning, sound insulation measures, traffic planning and control of environmental noise sources.
The present action planning area covers affected areas adjacent to sections of the N4 (Sligo City and Collooney) and N15 (Sligo city) National Primary road network.
