After a run of generally dispiriting news, there are some promising developments that John Stewart, chair of UKNA, reports:
‘I had a zoom call with Ian Andrews, the new head of Environmental Health at the CIEH, about noise complaints to local authorities which they are going to publish on 23rd March. He is young, enthusiastic, keen to work with us, very different to his predecessor. They have had a 93% response rates from the local authorities (it excludes Scotland where they don’t operate). But he was saying complaints have plummeted, down by as much as 60%. He’s sceptical that this means less noise and that it is more likely to be that people don’t see the point of complaining because councils lack resources to take action and because of digital exclusion. He suggested a quote from us in their press release. I’m away the week of the 23rd at an aviation conference but suggested, Val, it could go out in you name and told him that you are experienced on the media. He’s happy with that and will get back to us.
I had a zoom call with Stephen Turner of the AOA and Ellie Savage who coordinates the Institute of Environmental Sciences about Ellie’s idea of holding a meeting in Parliament to mark the 3rd anniversary of the publication of the House of Lord Select Committee [see earlier post] which the current Government has ignored. She and Stephen are looking to put together an event in early July on noise at which I would be one of the speakers, representing UKNA. Ellie is also behind Noise Action Week. I’m having a zoom call with her next week to discuss how we can help publicise it.’
This represents a potential turn-around from public officials that is – potentially – very encouraging.