Castle Combe court case....

[Speedman]

....... was lost


Circuit told to cut noise levels
A motor racing circuit may have to drop two of its major events after losing an appeal against a noise reduction order.

Chippenham magistrates upheld North Wiltshire District Council's order for Castle Combe Racing Circuit to reduce noise levels following complaints.

The circuit must reduce noise levels from 114 to 108 decibels by April 2006.

Managing director Graham Marshallsay said the restrictions could affect the circuit's ability to host national Premier Three and British GT meetings.

Both meetings operate at a level of 114 decibels - higher than the 108 decibel level of other races at the circuit.

"We do not know, hand on heart, if they will be able to come here," said Mr Marshallsay.

"They are a great money spinner for us as well as the local economy."

The circuit has hosted the events for the past five years.

The notice by North Wiltshire District Council seeks to bring self-regulation of the 12 motor racing days, by the circuit and the Motor Sports Association, under the control of the council.

Doreen Darby, deputy leader of North Wiltshire District Council, said: "This is a good decision for the people of Castle Combe.

"This will ensure that there is a balance between the circuit running their business and the rights of local residents to enjoy their properties without the need for formal action."

sad day for motorsport, if you don't like the noise of a race track, then don't move next door to one

[goaferboy]

bloody locals knew about the racetrack when they bought the house!

councils are bastards

[tonycocacola]

ridiculous

[Nick]

how can this happen

[goaferboy]

so theres no noise limit for a car on a road but as soon as it gets onto the track its limited to 108db? now that makes no sense whatsoever.

i can imagine the locals now "life so much better now that noise is 6db less, i don't know how we lived before" no ones happy now, the locals still have the noise of the racetrack and the track has now lost (maybe) 2 big events.

[Davenger]

rearwheelnick said:

how can this happen

Vecause we're surrounded by beaurocratic tossers.

If people don't like living by a race track, they shouldn't have bought the frigging house in the first place

[Revolution 9]

Absolutely bloody ridiculous. Why would you move next door to a bloody racetrack if you didn't want to hear the sound of a bloody racetrack?! Did they not notice that it was there?! If so, how could you possibly buy a house near a racetrack without seeing that there was a racetrack there?! How stupid are these people?!

Of course, they probably did know that the track was there all along, we're probably taking about the same type who move into the country out of a big city, purely so that they can winge about the smell of animals and having to drive miles to work in the morning!

What we're dealing with here is the Great British Winger. The sort who refuse to raise their concerns every time world leaders decide to shaft us all, but are more than happy to kick up merry f*ck for things that aren't a problem, and never have been. An unjust war over oil? Tony Blair trying to take our basic human rights away so he can charge us even more? Oh, best not say anything, don't want to look like a damned commie troublemaker, I'll just sit here and read the evening news, briefly tutting and telling the wife that this just won't do. But what's this?! A racetrack that makes the noise that racetracks do?! There before we moved in you say?! This isn't on, we must fight this terrible injustice!!

That sort of idiot really p*sses me off, they must go out looking for things that aren't a problem to get annoyed about. If they want to comlplain there are plenty of real injustices to fight over, why do they fight so vigourosly to close down a racetrack that has been there for a lot longer than they have, has never been a problem until they got there, and whos absence, or at least the loss of business they'll get because of the noise restrictions chasing away race series, is going to seriously damage the local economy. I hope your happy when people start losing jobs, idiots!

[goaferboy]

i reckon we should all go down for a cruise in the loudest cars we can find and then point out were not breaking any laws by being on the road.

[Revolution 9]

goaferboy said:

i reckon we should all go down for a cruise in the loudest cars we can find and then point out were not breaking any laws by being on the road.

If it wasn't a little out of my road I'd remove the exhaust from the Imp and be right down those b*stards streets revving as high as I could! ;D ;D ;D ;D You can't get much noiser than an Imp engine! ;D ;D ;D

[Imperial]

and five miles away is r.a.f. lyneham complete with four squadrons of hercules operating day and night,bet no one complains about them!

[Grahamini]

A local told me it`s some Londoners that have moved up to Castle Combe - apparently they still commute back to the smoke in the week so they need their quality time at the weekend, bless them ...

Trouble is the Castle Combe village is supposedly the "prettiest village" in England, the newbies obviously failed to miss the big brown Castle Combe Race Circuit signs everywhere

[penski]

goaferboy said:

so theres no noise limit for a car on a road but as soon as it gets onto the track its limited to 108db? now that makes no sense whatsoever.

i can imagine the locals now "life so much better now that noise is 6db less, i don't know how we lived before" no ones happy now, the locals still have the noise of the racetrack and the track has now lost (maybe) 2 big events.

The decibel is not a number or a value. It is a ratio - like percentages.

From Wiki:

The decibel unit is often used in acoustics to quantify sound levels relative to some 0 dB reference. The reference may be defined as a sound pressure level (SPL), commonly 20 micropascals (20 μPa). To avoid confusion with other decibel measures, the term dB(SPL) is used for this. The reference sound pressure (corresponding to a sound pressure level of 0 dB) can also be defined as the sound pressure at the threshold of human hearing, which is conventionally taken to be 2×10−5 newton per square metre, 2×10−5 N/m² or 20 micropascals. That is roughly the sound of a mosquito flying 3 m away. The ears are only sensitive to sound pressure deviations.

The reason for using the decibel is that the ear is capable of detecting a very large range of sound pressures. The ratio of the sound pressure that causes permanent damage from short exposure to the limit that (undamaged) ears can hear is more than a million. Because the power in a sound wave is proportional to the square of the pressure, the ratio of the maximum power to the minimum power is more than one (short scale) trillion. To deal with such a range, logarithmic units are useful: the log of a trillion is 12, so this ratio represents a difference of 120 dB.

Psychologists have found that our perception of loudness is roughly logarithmic — see the Weber-Fechner law. In other words, you have to multiply the sound pressure by the same factor to have the same increase in loudness. This is why the numbers around the volume control dial on a typical audio amplifier are related not to the voltage amplification, but to its logarithm.

Various frequency weightings are used to allow the result of an acoustical measurement to be expressed as a single sound level. The weightings approximate the changes in sensitivity of the ear to different frequencies at different levels. The two most commonly used weightings are the A and C weightings; other examples are the B and Z weightings.

Sound levels above 85 dB are considered harmful, while 120 dB is unsafe and 150 dB causes physical damage to the human body. Windows break at about 163 dB. Jet airplanes cause A-weighted levels of about 133 dB at 33 m, or 100 dB at 170 m. Eardrums rupture at 190 dB to 198 dB. Shock waves and sonic booms cause levels of about 200 dB at 330 m. Sound levels of around 200 dB can cause death to humans and are generated near bomb explosions (e.g. 23 kg of TNT detonated 3 m away). The space shuttle generates levels of around 215 dB (or an A-weighted level of about 175 dB at a distance of 17 m). Even louder are nuclear bombs, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and volcanoes.

Some other values:
dBSPL Source (with distance!)
180 Rocket engine at 30 m
150 Jet engine at 30 m
130 Threshold of pain
120 Rock concert; jet aircraft taking off at 100 m
110 Accelerating motorcycle at 5 m; chainsaw at 1 m
100 Pneumatic hammer at 2 m; inside disco
90 Loud factory, heavy truck at 1 m
80 Vacuum cleaner at 1 m, curbside of busy street
70 Busy traffic at 5 m
60 Office or restaurant inside
50 Quiet restaurant inside
40 Residential area at night
30 Theatre, no talking
20 Only Rustling of leaves
10 Human breathing at 3 m
0 Threshold of hearing (human with good ears)


An extremely detailed db chart can be found here; www.makeitlouder.com/Decibel%20Level%20Chart.txt


Under controlled conditions, in an acoustical laboratory, the trained healthy human ear is able to discern changes in sound levels of 1 dB, when exposed to steady, single frequency ("pure tone") signals in the mid-frequency range. It is widely accepted that the average healthy ear, however, can barely perceive noise level changes of 3 dB.

On this scale, the normal range of human hearing extends from about 0 dB to about 140 dB. 0 dB is the threshold of hearing in healthy, undamaged human ears; 0 dB is not an absence of sound, and it is possible for people with exceptionally good hearing to hear sounds at −10 dB. A 3 dB increase in the level of continuous noise doubles the sound power, however experimentation has determined that the frequency response of the human ear results in a perceived doubling of loudness with every 10 dB increase; a 5 dB increase is a readily noticeable change, while a 3 dB increase is barely noticeable to most people.

Sound pressure levels are applicable to the specific position at which they are measured. The levels change with the distance from the source of the sound; in general, the level decreases as the distance from the source increases. If the distance from the source is unknown, it is difficult to estimate the sound pressure level at the source.

*n

[Grahamini]

It`s a bit early for that isn`t it ?

My head hurts now !

[penski]

It's never too early for acoustics!

*n

[Shortcut]

More importantly the Db level follows the old inverse squared law so if you are 10m from a car at 10 Db and half the distance to 5m the car will appera to be 40Db.
This means that the Db level tails off considerably at the distance the houses are from the track which means the reduction in volume experienced by home owners will be so small as to be not noticable. This will lead the protestors to conclude that the circuit is STILL to loud and to lobby for its closure.
With the precidence set in their favour with the noise reduction I think the future looks bleak. Feckkin NIMBYs!!!

[jizzy gillespie]

i live 2 metres away from a very busy main a road, i knew about this when i bought my house, i think ill demand the council build a bypass round my village as all the trucks, buses , army convoys really get on my tits. and ill use castle combe as the example.

[penski]

I live about 100feet away from the A1...Never hear it though ;D

*n

[Grahamini]

Pardon ?