Whitfire Shavings and Sawdust Supplies is a family business based in Leyland. The company has sold wood shavings and sawdust for animal bedding for more than 80 years.
In 2016, the site was devastated by a large fire, which destroyed the four buildings that had been built and connected as the business’ footprint and demand for its services grew.
Proposition
The client received planning permission to put two new buildings on the site, the first of which is now completed and operational. Miller Goodall was brought in to carry out both the noise and air quality assessments required to support an application to vary the planning approval and make the second building bigger than originally proposed. This would allow more of the processes and heavy goods vehicles that are currently elsewhere on the site to be accommodated within the building.
Investigation
The first step was to carry out detailed measurements of the noise sources and activities on site. We then used these (and manufacturer’s noise data for new plant) to create a computer noise model of the existing scenario and proposed scenario. The aim of the model was to demonstrate whether the proposals would result in an improvement in noise emissions from the two scenarios, which in this case it did.
Miller Goodall subsequently provided a noise assessment to support a planning application by Whitfire Shavings for an individual residential development adjacent to the site. The assessment identified that noise levels have been mitigated to levels that would not impact the adjacent land and would not impact on the housing development in the future.
The benefit of the noise modelling was the ability to demonstrate different scenarios to the Local Authority. For example, we were able to show how the noise levels changed if different traffic figures were put into the noise model or if the building materials changed. The modelling provided a quick resolution for different scenarios.
Action and outcome
The application for the industrial buildings has been approved and the noise conditions discharged for the application. The application for the individual housing development has also been approved. This was a complex project with a number of different noise sources, all of which needed to be measured and inputted into the noise model.
