1. I would like a copy of the relevant section 61 documents from the Control of Pollution Act 1974 issued by Balfour Beatty to Wokingham Council for the works on the South Western Distrubutor Road. The documents I am specifically after relate to the site access, road cleaning, noise pollution and the hours of working.
Please note when it comes to the Control of Pollution Act 1974 Section 61 is voluntary and at the contractor’s discretion. A contractor can choose to pursue a Section 61 to protect themselves from a Section 60 (assuming they adhere to the agreed methodology).
Balfour Beatty have not progressed a Section 61. I believe this is due to the fact that progressing a Section 61 when a Compensation Environmental Management Plan (CEMP) is already in place is commonly considered redundant given the latter usually covers noise and vibration.
The CEMP is more comprehensive in that it goes beyond noise and vibration to include dust, water, waste etc. The CEMP has been approved by Wokingham Borough Council and is publicly available online Documents for reference 242535: Public Access.
While a contractor may submit a separate Section 61 should they feel there is a particular localised activity justifying such given the nature of the highway works to date this has not been necessary in the opinion of the contractor.
To address the specific points raised;
(i) Road cleaning; a road sweeper is present daily from 9am to 5pm at present and is based at the Easthampstead Road compound. It is primarily based on Easthampstead Road but visits Western Gateway (Finchampstead Road end) at least once a day and also attends Heathlands Road & Waterloo Road as required.
(ii) Hours of working; permitted hours are covered under the CEMP. The Contractor can operate between 08:00-18:00 Monday to Friday and 08:00-13:00 Saturdays. No bank holidays or Sundays are permitted. The Contractor can and does apply for out of hours working on a case by case basis where there is benefit. The reasons vary but one example is a utility crossing an existing road on a night closure to mitigate impact to daily road users.
(iii) Noise pollution; the permitted working hours act as the primary control method for noise, these are provided in the CEMP and above. Furthermore, the contractor has a number of monitors which measure noise, dust and vibration. These are moved around the site depending on the phase and activity.