Noise at concert

Press, 31 January 1984, Page 18

Noise at concert

Sir,—l see that two 10-metre sound towers are being constructed at Queen Elizabeth II Park for Sweetwaters South to be held on February 6. I ask the City Council to answer the following questions before the event: 1. Will noise abatement officers be on hand to police the sound levels in what is obviously a situation open to abuse? 2. Have the organisers been made aware of their responsibilities for noise control? 3. In the event of the concert exceeding the bounds of permissible noise, or the neighbourhood obviously being disturbed, what measures will the council and the noise abatement officers take to reduce the noise during the concert? We do not want a repeat of the Rod Stewart concert of some years ago when we were able to make a creditable recording on unsophisticated home equipment from a distance of I.3km.—Yours, etc., AUBREY J. W. STEVENSON.

January 28, 1984. [Mr T. Moody, a City Council supervising health inspector, said that sound-level monitoring equipment will be in use at the park during the concert. Concert organisers were expected to police the

level themselves, keeping within a reasonable level set down by the council. That level, at the boundary of the park, would be equivalent to the sound of motor vehicle traffic along a roadway. Concert organisers had been made aware of their responsibility for noise control. There would not be an abatement officer at the park. During the Rod Stewart concert some years ago, the sound level “in measurement terms was not, in fact, terribly bad.” Over the period of the concert, it was within the council’s limits. There had been “slightly higher readings” towards the end of the concert, but they had been “very, very brief.” Conditions had been particularly good that evening for the carrying of sound “over quite a wide distance.” He was not aware of similar neighbourhood complaints about concerts at the park since that event.]