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Dragonfly Consulting was instructed by Wold View Farm to undertake a noise impact assessment to support a planning application for a proposed wedding and events venue at Wold View Farm, Cottam.

The site is an existing farm with the main wedding and events area being a former manufacturing workshop surrounded by a copse of trees.  The site is surrounded by farmland in all varieties i.e. vegetables to arable.

The proposal for the site was to include two carparks, the main barn to be converted into a wedding and events venue with music inside the venue.

A separate part of the existing farm outbuildings was converted to toilets and a bar area.

Dragonfly Consulting undertook direct consultation with the East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) Environmental Health Team to agree the scope and methodology for an impact assessment of the noise emissions from the site.  It was also agreed that assessments for the following elements needed to be provided:

• Music noise from within the building
• Patron noise when in external areas
• Vehicle noise within the site as they arrive and depart
• Noise from permanent or temporary fixed plant associated with the development.

Day and night-time measurements were undertaken for this site

Detailed CadnaA noise modelling was undertaken to support the assessment of key effects. Base modelling consistent with each scenario was constructed utilising building heights on site (plans and elevations provided by the client), building heights off site (assumed to have an elevation of height of 8m i.e. a 2-storey residential premises) and ground heights (EA LiDAR DTM data with a spatial resolution of 2m was used).

Noise breakout from the main venue also needed to be modelled, using a series of area and vertical area sources.

Noise contributions from external patron noise was modelled as an area source with LAmax events modelled as a point source.

Detailed calculations were undertaken to determine source sound power levels based on a maximum capacity of 150 patrons during the daytime and 150 patrons during the night-time. Clearly, it is unlikely that all 150 guests at a wedding or event will be outside at one time during the night-time period, however this scenario was assessed to ensure that a worst-case scenario is considered in terms of night-time noise impact.

The predictions were based on typical speech noise levels for persons speaking in both a normal and slightly raised voice to provide guidance on the likely range of noise levels associated with the external area use.

Two car parking areas were proposed for the use of guests and staff with an overall capacity of 50 cars.