Call for factory noise survey

Press, 21 August 1979, Page 6

Call for factory noise survey

The Heathcote County Council was partly responsible for the “intolerable” noise levels at the Canterbury Malting Company’s factory in Port Hills Road, Cr W. M. Hindmarsh told a special meeting of the council’s, town planning committee last evening. Under zoning requirements and building codes the council had the power to ensure that no industrial premises became “objectionable,” he said. When the council had allowed widening of the Port Hills Rokd it had also cut out the possibility of landscaping at the factory. Complaints in 1978 about excessive noise from the factory led to the setting up of a council sub-committee (Cr W. M. Hindmarsh and Cr T. P. Wills) whose report was presented last evening. A Health Department survey in March, 1978, found that the “operation of industry has an effect on the noise levels” in certain properties near the factory. Since the report the company had made

a number, of improvements to reduce noise. However, the report concluded that noise from the factory premises was “of sufficient magnitude to constitute a nuisance” under the Health Act, 1953 and an “objectionable element” under the Town and Country Planning Act, 1977, and that “no measurable diminution of the noise had occurred since the complaint was lodged with the council.” The planning committee agreed that the Health Department should again survey noise levels in properties near the factory to see if there had been any reduction since the survey in March, 1978. If the department agreed with the report, it should recommend what action the council should take. Cr Hindmarsh said that when the report was presented to the council he had hoped that the council would go back to the company to talk about the problem. So far he had been “disappointed” with the company attitude.