CPD delivered on the implications of noise and overheating under Approved Document O

We met with Asbri Planning to provide them with a continued professional development document (CPD) on the implications of noise and overheating under Approved Document O. This government document was brought into building regulations predominantly to tackle overheating, but also noise, in buildings, from June 2022.

Considering noise in planning with Approved Document O

Since Approved Document O was brought into law in England in June 2022, was adopted by the Welsh Government in November, and is tackled similarly in Scotland through their existing guidance documents, it is well worth spending time considering the overheating and noise implications of your project at early planning stages.

Our in-person CPD with Greenbuild Consult

Working with Greenbuild Consult, we provided our first in-person CPD on the topic since COVID-19. The CPD covered the noise and overheating implications for planning applications going forward and stressed the importance of engaging with an acoustician and overheating assessor early in the planning process to ensure the design is robust, without the need to vary planning applications later on in the design.

Approved Document O has had a significant impact on schemes, and how it is implemented, both at the planning and design stages, requires careful thought.

Before Approved Document O, the impact of overheating control and noise ingress needed only to be considered as part of a planning or client requirement. These requests were ad hoc, and many local authorities and clients required a joined-up approach only more recently.

The criteria for noise limits under overheating conditions was previously based on the Acoustic, Ventilation and Overheating (AVO) guidance by the IOA and ANC. However, although informative, this document did not provide clear-cut noise limits, requiring consultants and reviewers to give their professional judgment and consideration to a scheme. 

Approved Document O has closed that gap, and now provides clear night-time internal noise limits which should be met for sites exposed to high levels of noise; this is now under the control of building regulations. How these limits are achieved requires careful and well-designed mitigation, and our CPD provides advice on the measures to achieve this.

Need to learn more about Approved Document O? Check out our in-depth exploration of the legislation here.

If you would like to know more, please contact us to arrange a CPD.