Mr W has been employed in Environmental Services from 2001 to the present working as a loader for Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council refuse and recycling rounds, on a full time basis.

Over the years, Mr W has worked on the refuse and recycling rounds variously; recycling rounds being the noisiest rounds. The sources of noise which have caused damage to Mr W’s hearing are the wagon’s engine noise, the noise of items (such as glass bottles) being emptied into the wagon wells and the crushing process of the wagons. At the back of the wagons, it was necessary to shout to communicate with someone only a few feet away, Mr W advised.

During Mr W’s employment, he was not told to wear hearing protection or warned of the dangers of noise exposure, until the last couple of years, by which time, the damage had been done.

Mr W now suffers from a mild degree of noise induced hearing loss, which was confirmed when he had an occupational health hearing test by his employer and this was later confirmed by an Ear, Nose and Throat expert, for the purposes of the claim.

The medical evidence was presented to the defendants however the defendants were unwilling to settle the claim out of court. They disputed the medical evidence, disputed that there had been any negligence on their part and argued that the claimant was out of time to make a claim, in any event.

Subsequently, WE Solicitors commenced court proceedings on the claimant’s behalf and an engineering report was obtained from an acoustic engineer which confirmed Mr W had been exposed to harmful levels of noise. The engineer’s report was based on noise surveys from the council, other relevant council disclosure, the claimant’s evidence, his witnesses’ evidence and the council’s witnesses’ evidence.

The defendants put further questions to the Ear, Nose and Throat expert to query the medical evidence and the expert remained supportive of Mr W’s case.

Less than 3 weeks prior to the scheduled trial date, the defendants made an offer of settlement of £3,000.00 which Mr W accepted, avoiding the need to attend court for a trial. Both Mr W and WE Solicitors are pleased with the outcome.