Warning devices that are fitted require testing under LOLER at least?

I don’t think that a reversing alarm would require ‘testing’ under LOLER! Happy to be wrong though!

It depends on what your question is? Whether you need the alarm or whether the neighbour can ‘insist’ on you silencing it.

Do try to see it from the neighbours view. Your neighbour MAY have a case for nuisance; this is highly subjective and dependant on a number of factors including level, duration, time of the day etc etc. I am afraid that it is NOT as simple as measuring the levels. The other thing that you might want to consider is whether you are in breach of the planning conditions for the site in terms of operating hours or other conditions imposed by the planning consent.

It would be worth revisiting your risk assessment (if you have one) that identifies the need for a reversing alarm and see if you can control the risk (and ask yourself how significant or not the risk is) by other means.

My advice - try and work with the neighbour to find consensus/compromise.

I'd go along with canopener on this. there are two separate issues. One is ensuring the health and safety of your employees, visitors etc. and the other is whether you are causing a nuisance to your neighbour. Your neighbour has two main options if they choose to take formal action. Either they sue you for Private Nuisance and aim to get an injunction to stop the noise plus any compensation they think they are due for loss of sleep, loss of enjoyment of their property etc. or they report it to the Local Authority (LA) who may decide to take action under S79 Environmental Protection Act for Statutory Nuisance. The LA can issue an abatement notice requiring the noise to be stopped and failure to comply can lead to prosecution with maximum fines of £20,000 + £2,00 per day that the nuisance continues.

I had a similar situation on a landfill site I used to run and we fitted white noise alarms from Brigade Electronics "http://brigade-electronics.com/product/reversing-warning-alarms/overview-was" These not only solved the nuisance problem but also increased safety as it is possible to identify the direction from which the sound is coming. This is not the case with standard single tone reversing alarms.

Whichever way you choose to go I'd advocate keeping good communication lines pen with the neighbour as no-one likes being left in the dark about these things.

Best of luck.

If my memory serves me well environmental noise nuisance can be deemed to be as low ~33/5dB - CNAW does not apply

Neither Private Nuisance or Statutory Nuisance have any noise levels related to them. It is is a matter of judgement as to whether the noise causes a nuisance to the person complaining. There clearly are defenses to both the civil and criminal action and you may well have a chance of winning on the H&S grounds but when I had a complaint like this to deal the advice I was given was that having to comply with H&S legislation was not enough to of a reason to cause a nuisance.