COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF LUCAN AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

QUESTION NO 7.

QUESTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

"To ask the Chief Executive, further to the motion agreed at the April meeting, to provide an update on the request for an examination of complaints of excessive noise levels affecting homes at Foxborough Park, Drive, Avenue and Downes which back onto or adjoin the R136 Grangecastle Road between the junction with Griffeen Avenue/Balgaddy Road and Glenvale/Abbeywood estates?"

REPLY: 

The Principal Environmental Health Officer reports, that he is in receipt of the complaint lodged on behalf of Foxborough residents regarding road traffic noise in the immediate vicinity of the R136 between the two major junctions mentioned above. 

The Enviromental Health Office reports that they are in liaison with the Traffic Section of the LUPT for the most recent traffic counts statistics from the nearest monitoring station at Foxborough Road. In addition,  South Dublin County Council has located a fixed noise monitor at Moy Glas which measures noise levels 24 hours every day. This is one of the council’s 10 fixed permanent noise monitors and is used as a means of comparing the council’s real time monitoring of noise across the county. 

Also the third round of the European Noise Directive (END) Noise Mapping and action plans is currently in progress in Ireland in 2017 and South Dublin County Council is a listed noise mapping body. This END Directive aims to provide a common framework across all member states to avoid, prevent or reduce, on a prioritised basis, the harmful effects of exposure to environmental noise from major roads and infrastructure. 

The making of the noise action plans is prescribed as a statutory environmental function of Local Authorities. South Dublin County Council is one such prescribed noise mapping body and the departments of Environmental Health, Traffic and GIS are working together in revising our noise modelling for all our major and regional roads and some very specific local roads.

R136 will be included in this current round of noise mapping. This mapping is currently in progress and will be concluded in the next few months and will involve further up-to-date traffic counts. Such traffic data, in conjunction with the other variables of the Noise Mapping Model, should then provide SDCC with the expected noise levels being experienced by day, evening and night on this road.

However, the Directive neither sets limit values for noise exposure, nor does it prescribe measures for inclusion in the action plans. Noise maps are generated for strategic management of environmental noise, based upon a notional annual average day.