The Campaign to Protect Rural England published a report today on traffic noise in London parks.
There is a PDF for each London borough. I have published the Brent report at the end of this article.
The
research
· Noise maps were created for all the
main parks in London, a total of 885, and set out in a separate document for
each borough
· Using official, publicly available
data, the noise levels were assessed for each park depending on the proportion
of the park which was impacted by noise. Each park was categorised accordingly
and the data was collated
· A note was also made where parks
were completely free from noise; where the whole park was noisy; and where the
noise was particularly loud
The findings
· Almost a third – one in three –
(29%) of the 885 London parks surveyed are severely impacted by traffic noise
(defined as meaning that 50% to 100% of the park is impacted by traffic noise
of 55 decibels or above)
· The results were wide-ranged. Sutton
has the fewest parks (7%) severely impacted by traffic noise and Enfield has
the most (57%)
· South London parks are quieter. All
South London Boroughs except one, Lambeth, have a figure below the median for
percentage of parks severely impacted by noise (see Table 2 p23)
· Being an Inner or Outer London
borough does not mean and having noisier or quieter parks
· Fewer than half (44%) of the London
parks surveyed are completely free from traffic noise
· Around one in five (18%) of the
parks surveyed are completely noisy i.e. traffic noise of 55 decibels or above
can be heard everywhere in the park
· A quarter (25%) of London’s parks
are impacted by particularly loud noise defined as being where at least one
quarter of the park is impacted by noise of 60 decibels or above
Noise in parks matters because:
· People are less likely to use parks
when they are noisy, so benefits are lost
· The key amenity benefit of access to
tranquillity is lost when parks are noisy
· There is strong correlation between
noise and air pollution from traffic, so where
people are
exposed to noise, they are also exposed to air pollution
· Noise contributes towards a range of
physical and mental health problems
· Noise impacts negatively on wildlife
· Where the local park is noisy, local
communities will de facto be experiencing a
deficiency in green space which does not register in assessments
RECOMMENDATIONS
London Boroughs, the Mayor and
Transport for London need to work together to:
· Permanently remove traffic from
roads impacting parks by re-routing traffic; by introducing traffic filtering
(e.g. resident access only, or cycle access and emergency vehicle access only)
and speed limits; or by pedestrianising streets near to parks, to reduce
traffic levels
· Introduce regular, temporary road
closures, like Sunday closures of the Mall in St James’ Park
· Investigate ways to mitigate noise,
for example by the use of noise barriers, noise reducing road surfaces and
natural features, including planting hedgerows
Assessments of
deficiency / sufficiency in greenspace should include an assessment of the
amenity or quality of the green space, including taking noise levels into
account.
London and National Policy should be revised so
that assessments of deficiency in greenspace take account of whether the
amenity or quality of the space is seriously impacted by noise (and concomitant
air) pollution, rather than simply assessing the amount of space and its
distance from residents/users.
Green Flag Awards assessments should
consider giving more weight to noise reduction and mitigation for parks
severely impacted by road noise.
