Home › Posts › Create’s Acoustics team shortlisted for an Association of Noise Consultants award

Create’s Acoustics team shortlisted for an Association of Noise Consultants award

May 19, 2026

We’re thrilled to announce that Create’s Acoustics team, led by Jody Blacklock, has been shortlisted at this year’s Association of Noise Consultants (ANC) Awards 2026.

The annual awards promote and recognise outstanding achievement in acoustics, noise, and vibration consultancy. These awards are highly respected within the acoustics profession, and 2026 marks our third year as finalists at the ANC Awards – having won awards and commendations in both 2023 and 2025.

This year we have been nominated in the ‘Innovation’ category, sponsored by Mason, for our work at the Bodleian Storage Facility.

BODLEIAN LIBRARIES BOOK STORAGE FACILITY

Up for the ‘Innovation’ award, the Bodleian Libraries Book Storage Facility is a national archive containing a copy of every publication in the UK, dating back hundreds of years. Publications are stored in four colossal chambers, which are joined to form one ‘uninsurable’ monolithic facility. Each chamber contained 80-metre-long, 10-metre-high racking, totalling 153 miles of shelving across the site, accessible only by mobile elevated working platforms.

Due to diminishing storage space, our client wished to construct a fifth chamber directly abutting the existing fourth chamber. This required foundation works to be constructed as little as 1 metre away from the existing racking, raising concerns about the stability of the racking, the 15,000-head sprinkler system, and the safety of operatives working at height.

Our Acoustics team was appointed by Glencar Construction to assess the proposed works, define safe working limits for the essential foundation phases, and then to review any suitable work process alternatives should the limits be exceeded. With no manufacturing data available, we developed an innovative testing method from scratch, before carrying out Vibration Monitoring throughout the construction phase.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The 2026 Awards will take place at the Annual Conference on 16th June at the Treehouse Hotel, Manchester, where shortlisted entrants will give four-minute presentations. The results will be announced at a dinner that evening, and the awards will be presented.

Congratulations and good luck to all finalists. For further information, please visit the ANC website.

A full list of shortlisted entries is below:

Health, Wellbeing and Inclusion (sponsored by Oscar Acoustics)

  • Acoustic Consultants – 19 Hills Health & Wellbeing Centre/
  • AtkinsRealis – Lisburne SEND Primary School

Venues (sponsored by Zentia)

  • AECOM – EMD Walthamstow
  • Cundall – Tides
  • Red Twin – Arena Torquay
  • SLR Consulting – Sandon Bury Farm

Vibration Prediction and Control (sponsored by CDM Stravitec)

  • Bickerdike Allen Partners LLP – Destoner
  • PDA Ltd – Facade Wind Noise and Vibration Mitigation Guildford Rail Station
  • Bickerdike Allen Partners LLP – Sound-Induced Vibration and Risk to Museum Collections

Environmental Noise : Infrastructure (sponsored by ANV Measurement Systems)

  • AECOM – Diriyah Square Road Tunnel
  • Stantec – Severn Trent Water Treatment Upgrade Projects
  • AECOM – Transpennine Route Upgrade

Environmental Noise : Non Infrastructure (sponsored by Getzner)

  • Acoustic Consultants – Gravity Industries
  • Apex Acoustics and Sustainable Acoustics – Grievesons Yard
  • WSP – Barking Riverside 

Building Acoustics (sponsored by AcSoft)

  • Acoustic Consultants – University of Gloucestershire City Campus
  • Hoare Lea – Radley College
  • Ramboll – MasterChef, Birmingham

Sustainability (sponsored by Pliteq)

  • AECOM – Morden Wharf
  • AtkinsRealis – SWTRA Vegetation Attenuation Noise Study
  • Sustainable Acoustics – B Corporation Journey

Innovation (sponsored by Mason)

  • Acoustic Consultants – Gravity Industries
  • Create Consulting Engineers – Bodleian Storage Facility
  • Cundall – Tides