Wales
Acoustic consultants in Cardiff.
A separate planning system, a city-centre stadium, and a bay full of residential development.
The local picture
What we deal with in Cardiff.
Wales has its own planning framework. Planning Policy Wales is the national policy document rather than the NPPF, and it sits alongside Welsh technical guidance on noise. The measurement standards are unchanged, BS 4142 and BS 8233 apply as they do across the UK, but an assessment that argues from English policy is answering a question the officer is not asking.
Cardiff has an unusual noise feature in the Principality Stadium, a large events venue in the middle of the city centre with residential immediately around it. Event noise there is intense, infrequent and highly predictable, which needs a different treatment from continuous sources and is normally managed through an event noise management framework rather than a planning condition alone.
Cardiff Bay has absorbed a great deal of residential development, and waterside sites need care with sound reflecting across open water, which a straightforward facade calculation will understate. Cardiff Council determines applications across the city.
Typical instructions
Work that comes up here.
Taken from the job book rather than a service list. If yours is not on it, it is still likely to be routine. Send the wording and we will say so.
- Planning noise assessments framed for Planning Policy Wales
- Event and stadium noise assessment and management
- Bay and waterside residential noise assessment
- Entertainment noise assessment for licensed premises
- BS 4142 plant assessments and sound insulation testing
Local detail
We read your checklist before we price it.
Validation requirements vary between authorities and between applications. We read the one for yours before quoting, so the scope matches what is being asked for rather than what is usually asked for.
- Determined byCardiff Council
- CountyWales
- Getting to siteAround three and a half hours from Manchester; unattended deployment.
- InstrumentationClass 1, calibrated and certificated
- Fee basisFixed, agreed before we start
- Report turnaroundFive working days from survey
Travel is our problem, not yours. Most surveys use unattended monitoring, so the distance to site affects our costs rather than your programme, and the fee is fixed either way.
What you can instruct
Services available in Cardiff.
Noise Surveys
Baseline and environmental monitoring, attended or unattended.
Learn moreNoise Impact Assessments
BS 4142, BS 8233 and ProPG assessments that planning officers accept.
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Plant Noise
ASHPs, chillers, kitchen extract and refrigeration, assessed against background.
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Noise at Work
HSE-compliant workplace assessments under the 2005 Regulations.
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Heat Pump Noise Assessments
MCS 020 calculations and BS 4142 assessments for ASHPs, single units to multi-unit schemes.
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Noise Complaints
EHO letters, abatement notices and neighbour complaints, answered with data.
Learn moreQuestions
Cardiff: common questions.
Is the planning framework different in Wales?
Yes. Planning Policy Wales is the national policy document rather than the NPPF, with Welsh technical guidance on noise beneath it. The British Standards used for measurement and assessment are the same, but the policy the report has to address is not.
How is stadium and event noise assessed?
Differently from continuous sources, because it is intense, infrequent and scheduled. The usual approach is propagation modelling to surrounding residential areas plus an event noise management framework with limits and monitoring, agreed with the authority in advance.
Working on something in Cardiff?
Send a postcode and a sentence. We're ready to price it right now.