Collaborations between Arise members Real 8 and Create Consulting Engineers, deliver planning application success for environmental protection, using innovation.
Q: How do you solve a problem like noise pollution? A: Collaboration and Innovation
Clay pigeon shooting is a popular and growing sport, part of a £3.3bn UK shooting industry that employs over 600k people*. In rural communities it has been shown to benefit social, physical and personal wellbeing**. The main challenge for neighbouring communities is managing the noise pollution from the clay pigeon shooting facility.
Arise members Real8 were recently asked to provide planning, management and design services to enable delivery of the UK’s largest Sporting Facility for Clay Pigeon shooting. Knowing that noise impact was going to be a significant hurdle, Real8 worked with Arise members Create Consulting Engineers to provide expert acoustics assessments and analysis.
Working together, Real8 and Create Consulting Engineers assessed the noise impact, utilising an innovative 3D noise propagation model which showed the noise visually (similar to a thermal imaging camera). This assessed the sound directionality, suggesting ways to reduce noise impact, including for school and residential properties. This then formed part of a successful discharge of planning conditions attached to the original planning consent.
Jody, technical director at Create Consulting Engineers said, “We are extremely proud of the client’s vision for this site. It was a demanding project and client, but through a collaborative approach with the design team and client, we were able to produce an award-winning noise impact assessment. There was a real emphasis on environmental protection from the outset, which can be overlooked on projects like this.
It was fantastic to work with Real8 on this project and Arise have been instrumental in introducing us both with numerous networking opportunities and providing an encouraging and collaborative working environment. I’m extremely proud of the work put in from every member of the Create Acoustics team, with an unwavering approach to detail.”
You may also like to read our recent article on Create Consulting Engineers are tackling the second largest environmental health risk in Western Europe.
Local land owners Eastern Sporting which is part of Grange Group wanted to build 24 different shooting locations. Local planning authorities were concerned about the impact on residents and a school. Create Consulting Engineers completed baseline measurements to assess noise pollution using this to create predictions based on the plans. This allowed Create to advise what needs to be done in order to make it quieter for the planning application.
Alongside a team day out on the range they were able to construct an accurate and innovative 3D noise propagation model. This displayed the noise visually, leading to planning approval from the local council. It was all done to BS EN ISO 9613-2(an internationally accredited standard).
Create Consulting went on to win an Association of Noise Consultants (ANC) commendation for this work, along with three other prizes at the 2023 ANC Awards Ceremony, which saw all entries peer reviewed, and awarded on the merit of the content of these applications.
Paul Calder Director at Real 8 says:
“Real8 acted as project lead for the delivery of the UK’s Largest Sporting Facility that focuses on Clay Pigeon Shooting and was pleased to work with other Arise technical teams to deliver documents to support the formal planning application process.
Real8 has inhouse Town Planners, Designers, Project Managers, Health and Safety Advisors and Quantity Surveyors but to ensure a successful planning application you need a wider variety of expertise and, in the case of the Sporting Village, noise was one of the main challenges that the team needed to address to provide the council confidence that in granting planning permission for the sporting facility no harm would arise to noise sensitive reporters. The Create Consulting Engineers team did a wonderful and professional job in providing the necessary technical reports relating to noise that in turn allowed the council to not raise any concerns on noise and grant planning permission.
Real8 enjoys working at Arise and the many benefits it brings in being able to work with fellow Arise members to deliver successful large scale infrastructure projects which, in this instance, was the UK’s largest Sporting Facility.”
Find out more about Create Consulting Engineers and Real8.
* The Value of Shooting Report 2024 - CPSA
** The Personal Value of Shooting 2016
*** Clay Target Shooting - guidance on the management and control of noise (cieh.org)