BECKIE WILSON
Masterton’s Makora Rd has claimed the dubious honour of Wairarapa’s noisiest street for 2017.
Of Wairarapa’s 731 call outs for noise complaints during 2017, Makora Rd was the source of 31 of them.
That was closely followed by Carterton’s High St, with 27, and Masterton’s Cornwall St, 20, making them the top three nosiest streets in the region.
Figures released recently to the Times-Age by the three district councils show a handful of streets across the region were subject to noise complaints twice or more during the year, some more than 10 times.
Of Masterton’s 535 complaints, Cornwall St clocked up 20, and Renall St, 18.
Harley St lost its title as Wairarapa’s noisiest street with its 18 noise complaints six less than in 2016.
Masterton District Council strategic planning manager Tania Madden said the majority of the town’s noise complaints related to music from stereos.
The streets that received the highest number of noise complaints were typically the more populated streets, she said.
“Where requests to cease noise are ignored, stereos and/or speakers may be confiscated — in these cases, police would also attend.”
Confiscated speakers and stereos were only returned to the owner if the council was satisfied that they would be considerate to their neighbours in the future, she said.
The Resource Management Act says that excessive noise means any noise “under human control” which unreasonably interferes with the peace, comfort and convenience of any person.
Armourguard officers are contracted by the three councils to monitor noise across the region.
Noise control officers visit complaint sites to determine if noise is “reasonable”.
If deemed excessive, the officer has the right to issue an ‘Excessive Noise Direction’ notice, according to the Carterton District Council website.
If the noise does not stop, officers may enter the property to seize noisy equipment and issue fines for not complying with the notice.
Consideration is taken for the time of day or night, type of noise, location of neighbours, duration of noise, and noise level.
Of Carterton’s 137 complaints – 19 more than 2016 – High St received the highest number, followed by Charles St.
Brooklyn Rd was the third noisiest street with nine complaints, demoting it from its title of the town’s loudest street in 2016 with 18 complaints.
Throughout the year, 46 ‘Excessive Noise Direction’ notices were handed out to Carterton residents, and only one seizure of stereo.
Carterton Rugby Football Club on Belvedere Rd received six call outs in three days in October, four on October 28 when it was also served two Excessive Noise Directions.
Carterton District Council planning and regulatory manager Dave Gittings said it was not surprising that High St received the most callouts, “it’s a fairly long stretch of road”.
South Wairarapa received the least number of complaints throughout the year with only 59 callouts – about half compared to 2016.
A combination of machinery noise, faint gun shot sounds and parties were the main reason of call outs in South Wairarapa.
Greytown received the most complaints with 24, followed by Martinborough, 18, and Featherston, 17.
Greytown’s Main St received five call outs, followed by Cotter St, 4, and West St, 3.
Martinborough’s Daniel St and Dublin St both clocked up the most callouts in the town with three each.
Featherston was relatively quiet throughout the year with Bethune St receiving the most with five call outs, followed by Fitzherbert St with three call outs.
The behaviour of residents was what defined the number of complaints which was beyond the council’s control, a South Wairarapa District Council spokesperson said.
Dogs are in fact the main reason for complaint on my street and other nearby streets (one of which is Cornwall st), but the council fails over and over again to address this issue. Often the dog-owners leave their dogs outside whilst they go to work, and are totally unaware that their good little pooch has just spent the last 8 hours making their neighbours (both close-by and a little further away) quite hellish. The second reason for complain on my street and nearby streets is boy-racer type people who spend a considerable amount of time on Friday nights and the rest of the weekend (day and night) doing doughnuts on the many intersections off Cornwall Street. As all calls to the police are now routed through other towns, by the time a message works its way through to our local station, usually a minimum of 15 minutes has already passed, and the boy-racers have already departed to fresher tarmac, levaing a number of angry and now awake residents in their rear mirrors. A number of people I have spoken to have considered taken matters into their own hands they are so frustrated by the issue – and that is simply to have a pile of bricks ready for when they are woken up, that they can grab one or two from as they sprint towards the source of the sound, and try to throw them accurately enough to hit the noise-making, law-breaking drivers of the cars. I do not agree with this, but when ‘normal’ people are beginning to consider this kind of thing as the only means to deal with their frustrations, then it speaks volumes about the lack of attention the problem is being given by those who are actually paid (from the taxes that those residents supply the funds to) to deal with these types of things. a/ it is the council’s job to deal with barking dogs that disturb the peace (for hours and hours on end some days) b/ it is the police’s job to deal with people doing doughnuts on intersections. It’s obvious where this happens as come monday morning there are huge rubber track marks everywhere… but there never seems to be any poplice cars that visit those areas… I guess they male a lot more money constantly fining the poorer residents of places like ‘the block’ instead of the slightly more middle-class areas which actually produces the kind of people who feel so entitled to drive their overpowered cars around so noisily (and dangerously) at times most likely to disturb. The priorities of both the council and the police and the council need to be seriously looked at. This town –
despite silly awards suggesting otherwise – is NOT improving for the majority of people who live here. It gets noisier and noisier every week – if the council and the police didn’t have their heads buried so far in the sand perhaps they’d be able to hear it!!