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The Government above the law
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The Environmental Agency in Town Range is tasked with investigating complaints originating from noise pollution.
A number of residents contacted the agency to lodge a formal complaint regarding noise levels a spokesman for the agency informing that they had conducted noise levels in the area in question and are in conversation with the GEA, no details were given.
Shockingly I was told that even if the noise level of the generators is constituting an offence contrary to the environmental or health legislation ‘no abatement order could be served as the GEA was Government owned and the law did not apply to the Government’ is what I was being told that there's no chance of an abatement order being served to secure the prohibition of this noise, because the Government is basically immune from the law or more to the point, above the law!
From another official I was also informed that had these noise levels been made by any other person or company or anyone else the Environmental Agency would have had no hesitation in serving abatement orders to prohibit these harmful noises.
Residents of the area are contemplating collecting signatures; others have even said they are thinking of moving away.
EU noise directives exist, defining a common approach to avoid, prevent or reduce the harmful effects of noise on human health, which include annoyance and sleep disturbance, distraction, speech interference, physiological effects and stress reactions due to exposure to environmental noise, the latter being the unwanted or harmful outdoor sound like the one coming from these generators, including noise emitted by means of transport, road traffic, rail traffic, air traffic and from sites of industrial activity.
However you will not be too surprised to know that Gibraltar IS ALSO ABOVE THIS and does not follow EU directives regarding noise pollution, hence, the free for all situation regarding noise pollution, with the main culprit our very own Government getting away with it!
The consequences of noise on the quality of life and on public health are rarely talked about, despite the fact that they are widely recognised as having a negative impact.
Why is it so difficult to do things the right way in Gibraltar, whoever said that “without sound, life is difficult to navigate, but with noise, it becomes unbearable” was surely not talking through his hat. This nation of ours is fast becoming an unnerving cacophony of unwanted, unhealthy and disgusting sounds everywhere you go!
Although like many other issues relating to the environment and other related health matters the GSD government has been left desperately wanting and have in my view a very poor record to boast about. I have said this in my weekly column that ‘this government does not appear to be serious about many things and have mastered the art of sending out mixed messages from drug and alcohol abuse to smoking, now the environment’.
04-07-11
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