ACOUSTICS OF PLACES OF ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORTS VENUES

1. ACOUSTICS OF PLACES OF ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORTS VENUES Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Dani Fiumicelli & Alex Krasnic

2. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Purpose • To introduce the Draft IOA Good Practice Guide. • Hold a pre-consultation discussion forum, and. • Inform consultation on the Draft IOA Good Practice Guide.

3. Introduction • Purpose • Why, How and Who? • Contents • Rationale & Scope • Regulatory Framework • Sources covered • Risk assessment • Noise Assessment • Noise Management plans • Noise control & mitigation • Communication & public relations • Measurement • Case studies • Licence conditions

4. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Rationale for revision of the CoP • IOA Good practice Guide to control of noise from pubs and clubs published in 2003 • Includes advice on practical ways of controlling noise, but no sound level based assessment criteria • Although published in 2003 it is untroubled by any reference to the licensing objectives of the Licensing Act 2003 or to any other regulatory regime. • Has come to be regarded as a bit of a “paper tiger”. • The regulatory landscape has changed substantially since 2003. • The experiential and evidence base from which to sound level based assessment criteria might be derived has grown • However, the currently available research and existing standards and guidelines, do not provide comprehensively unifying methods or criteria, for the assessment and appraisal of typical noise problems associated with places of entertainment. • The draft guidance is partially based on research which has been informed and augmented by accumulated experience of dealing with these types of noise problems.

5. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Scope of the CoP • Although the document is not an ‘approved’ code of practice under Section 71 of the Control of Pollution Act 1974, it does provide examples of what can constitute good practice with regards to noise from places of entertainment and similar venues. • Compliance with this Guide does not necessarily confer statutory immunity, nor does it provide a defence against legal action or confirm compliance with legal duties. • Conversely, variation from the advice contained within the Guide does not confirm non-compliance with legal duties. Ultimately, it remains the responsibility of Licensees and others responsible for managing noise from places of entertainment and similar venues, to ensure appropriate arrangements regarding compliance with their legal duties and licence requirements are made. • As a Good Practice Guide, the document is not intended to provide a definitive statement of Best Practice. • This is because any attempt at a prescriptive, single, unifying statement of Best Practice is likely to fail in the many situations that would fall outside the parameters of such a narrowly constructed concept. • There may be examples of Good Practice other than the CoP suggests that are as applicable as those described in the document and practitioners are free to choose such methods. However, it is suggested that it would be incumbent upon anyone making such a choice, to fully justify their reasoning.

6. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Regulatory framework

7. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Sources

8. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Venue risk assessment matrix • A risk-based approach to noise management and control provides the foundation upon which to base decisions. • Provides a proportionate level of response, management and control or enforcement in any given situation. • E.g. a pub hosting a band once a month ending before mid-night with sensitive receptors at some distance would not be treated as high a risk as a club holding events most nights of the week until the early hours of the morning, with adjacent sensitive receptors.

9. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Risk assessment • The Risk Rating tool can be used to determine appropriate assessment criteria. • For example: • Aa Risk Rating of less than 10 indicates that a control criterion at the less stringent end of the ranges that might be appropriate, • A Risk Rating of more than 10 but less than 20 indicates that a control criterion towards the middle of the proposed range would be appropriate, and; • A Risk Rating of more than 20 indicates that a control criterion at the more stringent end of the suggested range would be appropriate. • It may be appropriate to vary from the criteria illustrated in the Risk Rating tool in response to specific circumstances in the district e.g. rural locations with widely dispersed, noise-sensitive receptors and a central urban location with dense concentration of noise-sensitive receptors.

10. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Qualitative Assessment Scale The qualitative assessment scale adjacent describes typical aural effects with corresponding levels of subjective impact of an average recipient for persistent regular exposure to entertainment noise after 2300 hrs. Both quantitative and qualitative assessment of the degree of impact, is not just dependent on how loud the noise is, it is also subject to consideration of additional factors including; the total duration of noise generation, the time of day or night and frequency of occurrence. The assessment of the detrimental effects of similar levels of entertainment noise can result in varying outcomes from those described in the adjacent figure, when the additional factors differ from these assumptions. For example, an Unacceptable (Level 5) or Significant (Level 4) Detrimental Effect entertainment noise as shown above, could reduce to a Moderate (Level 3) Detrimental Effect, if it occurred infrequently and terminated before 23:00 hrs. However, qualitative assessments on their own are open to being undermined by claims of subjective bias, inconsistency and being unrepresentative. Consequently, it is recommended that assessments based on sound level measurements are also used to provide quantified, objective evidence.

11. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Quantitative Assessment of Entertainment Noise • Relative Approach • A relative approach compares the ambient or background noise level noise level (EN) with the same noise metric with the entertainment noise present (WEN). • Typically a more stringent relative limit is set for noise that happens often or after 2300 hrs than for noise that occurs infrequently or before then. • Relative criteria benefit from taking the existing noise climate in an area into account; but suffer from needing to know what the underlying noise level is, and can be difficult to measure when close to or below the WEN noise levels. • Both A and C-weighted criteria provided relatively strong correlations with annoyance in the NANR 163 research. • C-weighted criteria can be more responsive to low frequency content; although little guidance exists in regard to specific benchmark control limit values which might be used with this weighting, as it has seldom been adopted in environmental acoustics. Whereas A-weighted metrics have been correlated for assessment of many types of environmental noise. However this is not a defining limitation against using C weighting when a relative approach to assessment of entertainment noise is being taken. • Absolute Approach • Absolute criteria specify fixed values which the noise level should not exceed. • Consequently, assessments using such metrics do not require knowledge of the underlying noise level, but suffer from not taking into account the existing noise climate in an area, and can also be difficult to reliably measure or calculate when close to the ambient or background noise level. • Typically a more stringent absolute limit is set for noise that happens often or after 2300 hrs than for noise that occurs infrequently or before then. • The NANR 163 research found a reasonable correlation between NR curves and the subjective assessment of entertainment noise.

12. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Noise Assessment Criteria Framework • For the appropriate period (pre and post 23:00 hrs), the residual noise level is determined at the noise sensitive receptor location and rounded to the nearest decibel. This is then compared with the total noise level, including entertainment noise. If the total noise level exceeds the residual value by the specified criterion, then a significant effect is deemed to occur. • Entertainment noise level (EN) = Representative, or predicted, entertainment noise level, measured or predicted 1 m from the facade of noise-sensitive premises or within noise-sensitive premises. • Residual Noise level (WEN) = Representative noise level without the entertainment noise, measured or predicted 1 m from the facade of noise-sensitive premises or within noise-sensitive premises. EXAMPLE

13. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Noise Assessment Criteria Framework • Where entertainment noise contains prominent low frequency “bass”, when using relative noise criteria it is recommend that use of C-Weighted noise limits is considered and applied using the framework above. • The use of C weighting was agreed as the assessment framework is based on the change in noise level due to entertainment noise relative to a typical baseline without entertainment noise. • This raises the question of establishing the typical baseline without entertainment noise. This can be subject to substantial uncertainty when done on a broadband basis, which is often significantly expanded when considering multiple frequency bands.

14. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Noise Assessment Criteria Framework • It is unduly onerous to use the very lowest residual level that may be measured and instead a representative typical value should be used; as an example, the residual level in the absence of entertainment noise could be the whole integer modal average, i.e. the most commonly occurring value of the twelve WEN 5-minute measurements during the last hour of the operation of the premises without entertainment noise occurring. • For existing premises where it is impracticable to stop the entertainment noise for the last hour of operation, the measurement period shall be twelve WEN 5-minute periods totalling an hour after entertainment noise at the premises has ceased, excluding any measurements that contain noise from patrons or other sources associated with dispersal from the premises under assessment.) • Similarly, it is unduly onerous to use the very highest EN level that may be measured and instead a representative typical value should be used; as an example, the EN could be the whole integer value of the measurement closest to the 75th percentile of all the 5-minute measurements made in the last hour of the operation of the premises at its highest entertainment noise levels, i.e. it does not include any “cool-down period” when MNLs might be reduced below normal operational levels.

15. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Noise Assessment Criteria Framework • Use of L90 • In some circumstances, Leq,T may be substituted by L90,T. • For example, in relatively quiet locations when the ambient/residual Leq,T noise levels are controlled by intermittent and occasional noise events, such as individual vehicle movements. • Consequently, a more suitable approach could be to use the L90,T metric to describe the residual noise level, as this will be more representative of the overall noise climate than the Leq,T in such circumstances.

16. Draft IOA Good Practice Guide and pre-consultation forum Overview

17. Thank you Dani Fiumicelli Temple Group Dani.fiumicelli@Templegroup.co.uk www.templegroup.co.uk