"Transport noise pollution in Coventry nearly three times worse than rest of UK"

An estimated 19.5 complaints per 1,000 people were made to Coventry council about noise from roads and public transport in 2014-15, according to new figures

Noise pollution from cars, trains and buses is nearly three times worse in Coventry than the UK as a whole - according to the number of people who complain.

New figures from Public Health England, DEFRA and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health show the rate of noise complaints in different areas of the country.

In 2014-15 an estimated 19.5 complaints per 1,000 people were made to Coventry City Council about noise from roads and public transport such as trains and planes.

This was fewer complaints than the 20.5 per 1,000 received in 2013-14 but remains significantly higher than the 13.4 complaints per 1,000 received in 2010-11.

It is also significantly higher than the national average of 7.1 complaints per 1,000 people across England in 2014-15 with Coventry’s figure of 19.5 per 1,000 the 12th highest for any local authority area nationally.

Warwickshire, in contrast to Coventry, only saw 5.5 noise complaints per 1,000 residents in 2014-15.

The Government has set out its policy on noise in its Noise Policy Statement for England. The policy’s long term vision aims to promote good health and a good quality of life through the effective management.

In 2013, in order to inform the delivery of the Noise Policy Statement for England (NPSE), DEFRA carried out a piece of work to examine the effectiveness of policy measures since 1960 in reducing the impact of the noise problem that they were intended to address.

One of the focuses of this was noise legislation, and one of the conclusions it draws specifically from noise complaint data is that reported public dissatisfaction with noise as expressed by complaints has risen rapidly since the introduction of the legislation in the 1960s, and complaints of domestic origin now predominate.

While the rate may have levelled-off in the last ten years they continue to run at relatively high levels and have not fallen.

Densely populated urban areas tend to have higher rates of noise complaints with Westminster coming out at the top of the tree with 72.9 complaints per 1,000 people in 2014-15 - nearly 10 times the national average.

At the other end of the scale Wigan council in Greater Manchester had the lowest rate of noise complaints in the country

Only complaints made to local authorities were counted in these figures so, due to the fact that other bodies (e.g. Network Rail) may be the recipients of complaints, the true number of noise complaints may in reality be higher.

NOISE COMPLAINTS TO LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Area // Complaints per 1,000 people 2014-15

Coventry // 19.5

Walsall // 11.0

Wolverhampton // 7.7

Warwickshire // 5.5

Dudley // 4.4

Birmingham // 4.1

Sandwell // 3.1

Solihull // 2.8

I'd like to know far more about this data. I'd also like to know more specifically where in Coventry the complaints come from.

Try living in Longford the traffic noise hits you every direction with the M6 the A444 also Longford Rd all surrounding you and they call it a village

As long as the wind is in a westerly direction I don't find it too bad. If the wing turns north east then I get full force of the elevated section of the M6, and that can be very wearing. Thankfully, it doesn't happen very often when I need my doors and windows open.

Although Longford tries to hang on to its village status, I think we lost that a long time ago.