Noise complaints fall by 10 per cent

Sleepless neighbours and rowdy parties combined to generate 5870 noise complaints to the Tauranga City Council last year - an average of 16 grumpy callers for every day of the year.

And while that sounds like a lot, the council's environmental compliance manager John Payne said it was 10 per cent down on the previous year.

"It is a pleasant surprise," he told the Bay of Plenty Times.

Mr Payne expected less tolerance because of the trend towards higher density housing and anxieties created by the recession.

And the drop in numbers may not be a statistical blip.

Figures for the first four months of the current financial year showed a further 7 per cent decline to 1530 complaints to October 31.

But Mr Payne is not counting his chickens. Complaints soar as warmer weather puts people in the mood for partying.

Summer averages 650 complaints a month - 270 more than a typical winter's month.

He has noticed that party organisers were getting smarter. Instead of lowering the volume of the music, they were turning down the low frequency sub-woofer and bass. Mr Payne said these were the non-directional sounds that when a boy racer car goes past, you wonder "how does that car not fall to pieces".

The noise control system "worked well", with only 3 per cent of callouts last year ultimately resulting in stereos being seized. The previous year it was 1 per cent.

Mr Payne said it usually took the first visit by a noise control officer to quieten a party down. If the problem continued, the owner of the house faced a fine of $500 and a $190 fee to recover the seized stereo.

It took two complaints to despatch an officer who then stood outside the property and assessed if the noise was unreasonable in the circumstances. For instance what was loud at 1am was reasonable at 8pm, although each case was different - such as if an infant was being kept awake.

Mr Payne was amazed at the level of cooperation with police when it came to the point of stereos being seized, particularly at alcohol fuelled parties. He was unable to recall an instance where the situation had exploded.

"It is not always young people that cause noise problems. A lot of older people like their music loud.

"Noise is one of the biggest complaint types that the council gets. More so at the end of the week on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The rest of the week is relatively quiet."

He urged people who were planning parties to tell their neighbours, and even prepare a little management plan so that if things got too noisy a neighbour could ask for the music to be turned down.

"It is about opening up channels of communication."

Mr Payne said the one night of the year where people showed a lot of tolerance was New Year's Eve.

The council contracts out noise control to First Security Guard Services.

Western Bay District Council received 618 noise complaints last year and 410 complaints for the first 10 months of this year. The main towns were Te Puke, Katikati, Maketu and Waihi Beach.