Chch noise trial likely

Press, 29 February 1984, Page 1

Chch noise trial likely

Three noise control officers will probably be employed by the Christchurch City Council to provide an after-hours complaints investigation service. An eight-month trial of officers working outside normal office hours, including week-ends and holidays, was recommended yesterday by the council’s community services and health committee. The council has been criticised for providing only an answering service during times when most noise complaints are received. The trial, providing time to review the new service after six months, would cost an estimated $44,605 in salaries. Cr Rex Lester, the committee’s chairman, said the cost of a service that also covered other local bodies in the area could be higher because even more staff would be required. The Heathcote County chairman, Mr 0. T. Alpers, has suggested a metropolitan noise control team. The Mayor of Christchurch, Sir Hamish Hay, said that the idea was worth considering. He said that a personal after-hours service provided by the City Council “could relieve difficult situations.” In a letter to Sir Hamish yesterday, Mr Alpers said that the Heathcote noise control officer, the county’s health inspector, had found that he could resolve nine out of 10 complaints about such things as noisy parties and stereos by telephoning the offenders. The typical response was “one of embarrassment, and a failure to appreciate that neighbours were being disturbed,” said Mr Alpers. “In these circumstances, I think we should conceive the typical noise control officer to be more like a social worker than a burly police sergeant.” In spite of having police back-up available in appropriate cases, noise control officers would have to be “capable of looking after themselves, and prepared to do so,” he said. City Council noise control officers would be provided with radio-equipped vehicles from the council’s car pool while they were on duty. Officers working after hours could be based at a facility that was run on a 24-hour basis, such as the waterworks pumping station. Cr Lester said the only practical way to meet the council’s call for more effective policing of the Noise Control Act was to employ more staff on a shift basis. Concert curb, p 9