Kings Cross Local Environment

CEMEX more progress

There has been a lot of work going on with CEMEX over the past couple of months to improve their noisy behaviour on Rufford Street.  The Council noise officers convened a meeting between the CEMEX plant manager Paul Betts, Joanne WIlson of CEMEX environmental compliance, Rufford Street resident Stuart Cottis and I yesterday.  CEMEX have already:

• replaced rollers on the squeaky conveyor
• replaced valves on the cement silo to deal with the dust problem
• stopped the incredibly noisy tipping of aggregate before 0830
• reduced Saturday deliveries
• stopped tipping lorries' engines from running when stationary
• handed over a contact number for the manager for local residents

They have also undertaken to do (amongst others)

• stop tipping lorries arriving before 0830 (hurrah)
• lag the inside of the aggregate silos to reduce the noise from aggregate tipping
• replace the broken curved acoustic shield to contain noise from waiting concrete mixers
• install a new acoustic shield next to the aggregate silos
• move the tipping lorry fleet over time to use white noise reversing beepers (the ones that sound like a croaky frog rather than a loud beeper)
• examine how to use banksmen to back the lorrys up safely on the street
• tidy up the external appearance of the plant including a proper sign
• invest in community activities to help local youth
• notify us as they improve things so we can help judge what difference is made
• undertaken to preserve the horse chestnut trees that shield the plant
• buy rubber shovels to reduce the noise of clearing up spilt gravel (not a joke)

Overall we are pleased at what seems to be a substantial and well funded intent to improve the performance of the plant.  Many of the problems are being blamed upon poor managment and low investment when RMC ran the plant.  It has been a long haul over about six months to get to this point, but it is promising.  Many of the things on my list are being done.  However the community has to remain vigilant to ensure that this work is carried out.  The Council noise officers have been exceptionally helpful throughout.  WIll continue to keep this up to date.

CEMEX - what's going on ?

A CEMEX environmental compliance team visited the noisy plant on Rufford Street on 9 September.  They visited my flat and I wrote about it here.  A full environmental report was promised in 'three to four weeks' but i haven't heard anything yet.   The Islington Gazette contacted me for the second time to follow-up on my intervention at a planning meeting in April about the noise caused by the plant and its impact on the Islington Triangle proposals. I put the Gazette off the first time they contacted me in July, but this time i filled them in on developments.

Some things have changed at the CEMEX plant on Rufford Street in the last few weeks.  there appears to be a change in the pattern of tipping noise with less tipping before 0800.  However there is still a substantial amount of reversing noise (mainly beepers and engines revving) from 0715 onwards.  Lorries continue to sound their horns at each other.  Only a fraction of the measures i set out here have been implemented.  Even a slight change is promising after years of denial by RMC/CEMEX, but until residents and the Council see a report from CEMEX we won't know if this noise pollution will relaly be tackled. A long way to go yet.

CEMEX plant being truclent

Like a naughty child that when told off behaves worse, just to prove that it can the CEMEX plant on Rufford Street threw a little tantrum this morning.  After enforcment visits by their own national environmental compliance team the guys at the plant decided to put on a special show this Saturday morning.  One of my neighbours was woken by especially early weekend deliveries of gravel at around 0700 and lots of banging noises.  On a Saturday morning.  Until we see some demonstrations of good faith from CEMEX we shall continue to increase the pressure.  Watch here for next steps, pehaps we shall put them on the naughty step.  Thanks by the way for all the supportive emails.  We'll get there in the end.....

CEMEX - some progress.....?

Today CEMEX sent an environmental compliance team and an acoustic consultant to the Rufford Street site following the persistent noise complaints made by residents and the Council.   They  took some measurements from my flat while loads of aggregate were being tipped.  We were not able to reproduce the peak noise - it appears that the noise peak may occur when the hoppers are empty - about five deliveries had taken place this morning prior to the tests so the huge noise did not happen when the acoustic consultant was in my flat.  We went through all the issues in some detail. I handed over a list of short and long term measures that should be taken.  Download cemex_palliative_and_structural_noise_reduction_measures.doc

It was a constructive and apparently helpful exchange.  A new management team has just been installed in the decrepit Rufford Street site - they can't make it any worse.  You can find some of the history in the CEMEX category in the borders to the left of this post.  We shall have to wait another 3-4 weeks for a formal environmental report and response.  However i got the impression that we should see some changes before then.  So apparently positive overall but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.....

CEMEX noise pollution on Bank Holiday

These guys at the CEMEX/ReadyMix plant on Rufford Street never give up - at 0910 this morning on the Saturday of the Bank Holiday weekend a wave of deliveries of sand and gravel began.  About 6 lorries delivered in the space of 50 minutes, causing a terrible noise nuiscance and ruining my peaceful brekafast.  CEMEX's behaviour is highly anti-social, they make little or no eff ort to adjust their behaviour to avoid distrubing residents with noise pollution.  I have been in correspondence with CEMEX and they are doing an environment inspection - i was originally promised results by the end of July but have just heard that they won't have anything for a few more weeks.  Very annoyed - so i made a film of this mornings tipping and stuck it on YouTube - click here to view (and remember to turn your speakers on).

New CEMEX noise pollution video

Working from home a fair bit lately and the noise from the CEMEX plant on Rufford Street is driving me mad.  Lots of beep-beep-beep vroom crash.  So i worked out how to edit video and have put together a compilation from the video footage i have amassed - a sort of edited pollution highlights.  You can find it on YouTube here.  More seriously CEMEX have promised that their environmental study of the plant will be finished any day now.

Saturday morning noise

It is unreasonable for the CEMEX plant on Rufford Street to make huge amounts of noise on a Saturday morning.  I recorded at this link a short video of the tipping today Saturday 29 July at 0852.  As i type this another lorry is backing up..........  CEMEX is looking in to the noise pollution with apparent seriousness - i have been promised an update after the CEMX officer returns from holiday on 7 August.

CEMEX concrete plant - change of hours ?

It may be the start of a new pattern but in the last couple of days i think that the CEMEX plant at 1 Rufford Street has moved its first deliveries of aggregate back to 0800 rather than the traditional 0700 early morning wake-up call.  This morning's delivery (video at this link for full beeep-beeep-beep-rev-rev-rev-huge-crash sound effect) was at about 0800.  This is an improvement, but it remains unacceptable to create this much noise full-stop, let alone before 0900 in a residential area. 

There is no earthly reason why the huge hoppers need to be filled-up first thing - they could fill them the afternoon beforehand.  It is not as if the gravel is going to go anywhere overnight.

I have a call out to CEMEX to see how their environmental investigation is going.  Anyway, it is nearly August when the plant traditionally goes fairly quiet

CEMEX noise update and more video

The CEMEX plant on Rufford Street has caused local noise pollution for many years.  Recent contact with CEMEX and some history are detailed at this link. 

I have now had a short letter back from the President of CEMEX UK operations, Ignacio Ortiz.  He acknowledges my letter and  pins  resolution of the issue on  an internal environmental compliance investigation by  Joanne Wilson.  (My scanner is not connected so i can't scan the letter in yet).  I would expect the investigation to finish in the next couple of weeks and then there will be a correspondence between CEMEX and the Council.

It is a small but important achievement to have recogntion of the issue from the CEMEX UK's overall boss and a formal internal investigation.  But the proof of the pudding is in the eating - when we know what the investigation reveals and what actions will be taken to eliminate the noise.

I have also shot some more short video clips of the CEMEX plant that try to get across the wall of sound made by tipping gravel.  You cann see the videos by clicking here .  In the latest clip at that link the tipping noise even drowns out a passing diesel intercity train labouring up the hill under full power as it accelerates away from Kings Cross (and we know how noisy they are.......). 

VIDEO - noisy Cemex readymix concret plant Rufford Street

I have posted several times about this plant that lowers the quality of life on Rufford Street in Kings Cross.  I have now had a really amateurish stab at making a video with my mobile phone to try and get the noise across - i am no Eisenstein and am probably the oldest person using YouTube but you can see it here.  Will have another stab with some better kit.

UPDATE 17 JULY

have made a better quality film this morning film using different kit.  am slowly getting the hang of video and will post more clips in the future.

UPDATE 20 July - more video and audio

I have shot some more film of the noise made by lorries tipping aggregate at the plant you can see it by clicking here The recording was made by putting the camera on my windowsill.  Even though it is a breezy day the wall of sound casued by the gravel hitting the hopper is all too apparent about 1min20secs into the clip