Noise in the Countryside

Abstract

Environmental noise is a subject of growing public concern. Two surveys are reported which explore the attitudes of the British public to noise in the countryside and in particular to environmental noise caused by agricultural activities and other uses of farm land. The results indicate that agricultural noise has been the cause of annoyance to 6% of the rural and semi-rural population in the last 2 years. Aircraft, domestic and road traffic noise each cause four times more incidents of annoyance than agriculture. The most frequent sources of agricultural noise annoyance are acoustic bird scarers and field or transport operations. When compared with the comparable issue of unpleasant smells in the countryside, noise was judged by a small majority of the survey respondents to be less important. Complaints about farm noise comprise about 3% of the noise complaints received by rural local authorities. These complaints most frequently refer to noise from acoustic bird scarers, clay pigeon shooting and rough terrain motor sports.