COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, April 16, 2012

QUESTION NO. 10

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

To ask the Manager, further to question No. 9 at the December 2011 Council meeting, to provide a detailed update on the current programme of 24-hour noise monitoring and to further advise if any areas subject to noise pollution from roads or railways are included in this current round of monitoring?

REPLY:

The Environmental Health Department has upgraded and expanded the network of noise monitors which are used to validate the computer-modelled noise maps. The works commenced last November and concluded in early April. The network has been expanded from three noise monitors to seven. The network is now as follows:

Location	Address
St Colmcilles School	Scholarstown Rd Knocklyon D16
Rathcoole Parks Depot	Mill Road Rathcoole Co Dublin
Deansrath Depot	Off New Nangor Rd Clondalkin D22
Tallaght Leisure Centre	Cookstown Rd Tallaght D24
Cheeverstown House	N81 Templeogue Dublin 6W
County Hall	Belgard Square North Tallaght D24
Esker Parks Depot	Esker Lane Lucan Co Dublin

The sites were selected to give an overall picture of noise from traffic through the South Dublin County Council area, in order to validate the noise maps. The Noise Action Plan is then derived from these maps. We are currently on the second round of Noise Mapping, an activity which is required every five years under the Environmental Noise Regulations 2006.

The noise monitors operate on a 24-hour basis, each taking a noise reading every five minutes. The readings are then transmitted to a website. The website is currently being upgraded to a more user-friendly front end, which will convert the raw data into graphic form. This should be completed within the next two months.

It is envisaged that further noise monitors will be added to the network incrementally.