A CHARTER FOR

10th November 1967, Page 105

10th November 1967

Page 105

Page 105, 10th November 1967 — A CHARTER FOR

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NOISE-LOVERS? By Eric Willoughby THE Consumer Council believes the law concerning vehicle noise will be virtually unenforceable. Only rarely, it says, will a roadside test be able to detect vehicles when they are at their noisiest. And the Council wants lower noise levels enforced immediately, and encouragement from the Ministry of Transport for the design of quieter engines, and their production.

It believes that vehicles should be obligatorily fitted with a silencer approved for each ' particular model, marked for checking in Ministry tests.

At a Press conference on Monday the Council—which has described the Ministry of Transport's vehicle noise level legislation as a "charter for aggressive noise lovers"— gave a demonstration of vehicle noise.

And the Council emphasized its conten tion that the new levels will merely legalize the present noise emitted by vehicles, particularly commercials, and will do little or nothing to prevent them becoming worse. Stopping of too-noisy vehicles will not be possible, says the Council, because of the necessarily critical position of the microphone.

Tape recordings were played to show just how noisy the new laws would permit vehicles to be. The council thinks legal levels should be lower, and that the roadside check could be simplified by using a hand-held meter at any location and then taking suspect vehicles to a properly equipped testing station.

New vehicles will have to comply with the Ministry regulations early next year; existing ' vehicles will be affected in 1969.