Neighbours city noise nightmare

A Palmerston North resident fed up with raucous neighbours wants to know why noise control won't do anything about it.

But the Palmerston North City Council says offenders can only be punished if they are caught in the act - a task easier said than done.

Jenny Bean bought her house in a good Palmerston North suburb last year, because she thought it would be a quiet neighbourhood.

Then, shortly after she moved in with her two sons, the neighbour changed, and so did the noise levels.

Since then, weekends had become a nightmare of loud parties that often ended with screaming and swearing, she said.

"From January through to now there's been ongoing issues with partying every weekend . . . Its actually driving me insane."

Because of the nature of the parties, Ms Bean said she felt too intimidated to approach the house and ask the residents to turn it down - the same worry meant she did not want to be photographed or have her suburb named.

"I actually wouldnt go over there because Id probably get hit."

So she had started calling noise control, and was appalled at the results.

Each time there had been few results, because the party simply quietened down when they saw noise control approaching, and turned it back up when they left.

"Theres actually no point in me ringing because they dont do anything about it. What is the point of having noise control if it doesn't do anything?"

But council environmental protection services head Wayne Jameson said legally noise control, a service contracted out to Chubb Lock and Safe, could not do anything unless offenders were caught in the act.

There was also the issue that some parties did not have music, so it was just voices, an occurrence during some of Ms Beans complaints.

You cant confiscate voices, and legally there was no official noise level classified as being too loud in a residential area.

"This is the awkward part about the Resource Management Act . . . Its simply unreasonable and the noise control officer has to make a judgment call as to what is reasonable."

Complaints were recorded, and if a street was identified as having an issue - but the offenders were evading the officers - unmarked vehicles were positioned so offenders couldnt rely on sentries to get them out of trouble.

"We just cant catch them at it - that's when we do the stake-out."

The method had been used on about four occasions, he said.

But in this case there had not been enough calls to justify that.

He encouraged Ms Bean to keep calling so her complaints could be recorded, and said he would send a staff member around to talk through the options with her.