Raglan St’s astounding 51 noise complaints since the start of the year can not be attributed to road noise, but an apparent vendetta against one household. BELLA CLEARY reports.
Following a story in the Wairarapa Times-Age about the region’s noisiest streets, a resident reached out to the paper and said they believed they were the targets of most of Raglan St’s complaints.
A Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act [LGOIMA] report dated June 1 said that from October 13, last year, to April 13 this year, there were 45 complaints made to Masterton District Council [MDC] against the resident’s property. In the same six-month period, there were 11 animal control complaints, 3 Excessive Noise Directions [ENDs] issued and one equipment seizure.
The resident, who lives with their partner, young child and dog, said they had moved to the area a year ago and had never had any issues with neighbours previously.
“We’ve now had more complaints against our house than the whole of Greytown.”
When the complaints kept coming, the resident on the receiving end decided to raise the issue with MDC, firstly in January, and again in April.
“We made suggested changes such as planting trees along our boundary line,” said the resident.
“But it’s just been an ongoing thing. On Easter weekend, my partner was cutting firewood and the neighbour had rung noise control multiple times.”
On this occasion, the resident said the noise control officers couldn’t act because there was no substantial noise, so the neighbour called the police.
The resident said it was frustrating to feel like there was nothing they could do about the complaints.
“One time we were just eating our dinner, and there was a noise control officer in our driveway just sitting there listening if there was any noise.”
To their knowledge, the resident said there were now measures in place with MDC specific to their situation and conflict with the neighbour, but it had taken a lot of time and effort.
MDC would not confirm if this was the case, or comment on the detail of complaints linked to a specific property.
However, regulatory services manager Terri Mulligan confirmed two visits were made to two properties on Raglan St to discuss ongoing complaints.
Mulligan said the noise level was assessed with regard to volume [barely audible, clearly audible, loud noise], the time of day, and the tone of the noise [bass, piercing notes].
“Consideration is also given to the frequency of verified complaints.
“An END applies for 72 hours. Where there is a further noise complaint soon after an END has expired, this is taken into consideration.”
As ENDs were only issued when noise was deemed excessive by a council officer, Mulligan said officers wouldn’t usually initiate contact with the subject of the complaint.
“They may obviously be visible when assessing noise levels.”
If numerous unverified complaints were received, Mulligan said council action could be dependent on any independent complaints about the same noise.
The resident said they were unhappy with how the complaints had skewed the Raglan St data.
“It’s definitely unfair to paint a lovely family street with a bad name all because of a neighbourly dispute.”
