Noise complaints of low frequency humming (FOI)Noise complaints of low frequency humming (FOI)
Produced by the Freedom of Information officeAuthored by States of Jersey and published on
25 July 2018.Request
A
Please provide the number of noise complaints, broken down by Parish, month, and by year, which mention a low frequency noise or 'hum' on Jersey. The period should be from January 2009 up until the most recent complaint available. For each complaint please provide the description given by the person logging the complaint as to what they are hearing and when in the day / night they are hearing it (a transcript of their word for word complaint is fine with any personal names / info removed)
B
Also, please provide the daily log showing when the energy from waste plant is operational, broken down by hour using a 24 hour clock, for the period Jan 1st 2018 to the most recent date available in July 2018. Operational would be defined in this instance as the furnace is running (please advise which furnace is running or note all if all are running), and burning waste, and energy is being transferred to Jersey Electricity Company.
Response
A
Please note that the relevant database only goes back to 2013
| Low frequency noise or hum |
|---|
Year | Parish | Frequency | Month | Complaint |
| 2014 | St Helier | Constant | February | Can constantly hear a humming noise but not everyone can hear it |
2014 | St Mary | Night | December | Low frequency noise. Unknown source |
| 2015 | St Helier | Night | January | Noise described as “a loud, dull and intermittent humming noise.” |
2016 | St Ouen | Night | February | Buzzing and hum from refrigeration / air conditioning |
2017 | St Helier | Night | February | Low frequency noise source unknown |
2017 | St Ouen | Night | May | Low frequency noise from the telephone exchange |
2017 | St Peter | Night | June | Humming noise which appears to start before 5 am each morning and persist for perhaps an hour or more |
2017 | Grouville | Night | July | Low frequency noise |
2017 | Grouville | Night | July | Low frequency noise |
2018 | St Helier | Night | July | Overnight noise from Energy from Waste plant – can’t sleep |
B
Having undertaken a review of the documentation it is apparent that the information requested is not held in a format which could be provided within the 12.5 hours permitted under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. A review of each daily log sheet at each hour would need to be undertaken.
Article applied
Article 16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive
(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.
Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
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