Lunacy in this country

[Madge Wildfire]

Very true I've even heard of "townies" moving into rural villages and complaining about Church Bells or Cockerels Crowing

Yes, and there are still occasional local news stories about those subjects.

There are even people now starting to complain about electricity pylons near where I live, even though the pylons were there when I moved here over 25 years ago and the road of houses where they live was built about 10 years after that.

No one forced anyone to live there.

 

[Drsatan]

It does astonish me that some choose to buy a house or flat adjacent to a railway line and then complain about the noise. This happened when the Romsey-Eastleigh railway was reopened to passenger trains in 2003 and several individuals wrote to the Echo complaining about the noise, now that one passenger train was using the line in each direction per hour, as opposed to one or two freight trains per day. Since the railway was built long before the surrounding areas were developed, and considering that the needs of passengers using that particular line outweigh the concerns of a few homeowners, I don't think they had a leg to stand on!

With regards to this article, I think 'shared space' developments would work well in town centres which aren't used as major thoroughfares. This is because people are more accustomed to sharing the road with cars and cyclists. A good example is the town where I'm from, where the high street has about 12 road signs alternately advising and warning motorists. If the high street was converted into a 'shared space' then those road signs would be redundant.

 

[t_star2001uk]

I always thought that there was something written into the Railways Act which was an exemption from noise abatement regulation.

Quote from Direct Gov

Railway noise

People living close to railways might be affected by high noise levels. However, there are no legal controls unless the noise is caused by a new railway affecting your property. In this case, you might be able to get a noise insulation grant.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
also this taken from Hansard 28 Feb 1998

It discovered that section 122(3) of the Railways Act 1993 gives all rail operators a statutory defence against the Environmental Protection Act. Those who take action against the rail operators have to prove that their operations and actions were, in the words of the section, "totally unreasonable".

So from this we can see that the Railways Act gives an exemption from the Enviromental Protection Act. So it looks like all of those noise abatement orders are just worthless bits of paper......

 

[alanf]

Ive moved in the last year because of the noise of the trains passing and the frequency of them. It all started off quite well in 1989 with 56s thrashing past on coal trains but then someone had the idea that some Canadian locos would be better. Then GC started the London to Sunderland service and i felt a lot better about the noise for a couple of years but then they got re-engined and i just couldnt handle it anymore:cry:

 

[185]

I did make a complaint in 2010 against my neighbour for noise which was upheld.

My neighbour is actually a certain train depot. They were testing both tones on the horns at 3am

 

[Tim R-T-C]

I remember a great story about one of the Scottish RAF bases which closed for 6 months to have the runways redone. During this time an "enterprising" developer whipped up a load of houses on wonderfully cheap land and of course no-one looking round heard any aircraft before they bought the houses...

 

[tempests1]

I remember a great story about one of the Scottish RAF bases which closed for 6 months to have the runways redone. During this time an "enterprising" developer whipped up a load of houses on wonderfully cheap land and of course no-one looking round heard any aircraft before they bought the houses...

Must have been the same developers that built on flood plains!