“Awful” dust from unsealed yards and vehicles on the road has been plaguing Awapuni Rd for years, says a fed-up resident.
However, the council says it investigates dust complaints, adhering to ministry standards.
The Waikanae man, who has lived in the area for more than 40 years and did not want to be named, said the dust “is worse than it’s ever been”.
“Primarily, it comes from two places. It comes from the unsealed yards that run down the back of the residential area. And the other place it’s coming from is the road, which is dirt and stuff that’s getting dragged through town.”
The resident lives in an area zoned “inner-city residential” that neighbours outer commercial and industrial-zoned land.
“The shuttling of logs backwards and forwards to the port doesn’t help, or the trucks coming in from the forest – especially when it’s wet and it’s muddy.
“A lot of dirt gets dragged in, but the stuff that’s the dust that comes out of the yards over the back is basically from the unsealed yards and the activities that go on in those yards that stir up the dust, but the wind just picks it up and deposits it everywhere,” he said.
“It blows in everywhere. It affects everything. You breathe it, it’s on your washing. When it’s hot and windy, you can’t have your windows open because it’s all inside your house and over a period of time it just accumulates. It’s awful,” he said.
He also showed the Gisborne Herald a recent video of dust rising and being blown around by the wind.
“Whenever the wind gets up, it carries the dust through the residential area from out of those yards.”
The resident said he had been in touch with the council several times.
“It rears its head every now and then. You get really sick of it.
“I’m certainly over complaining to the council ... nothing’s actually happened.”
The Gisborne District Council told the Gisborne Herald that dust complaints from the area were investigated in accordance with Ministry for the Environment standards.
“The road is swept weekly,” it said in a statemtent.
The council said any action it took depended on the zoning of the land.
“The zoning determines whether they need consent or not. If they do require consent, conditions can be imposed to manage environmental effects.
“While businesses are not required to seal their yards, they must take practical steps to manage dust and sediment coming off them.”
The council said that if there was a problem with dust, affected residents could “call [the] council to register a complaint, keep a ‘dust diary’, organise a community meeting with residents and nearby businesses, contact the businesses directly”.
Gisborne District councillor Andy Cranston, the committee chairman of Operations Environment and Communities, said he had received information about dust concerns in the area about three weeks ago.
“My understanding was that there was a requirement for the activity to be dampened down when it was likely to be an issue of concern.”
Cranston said he would follow up with the dampening requirement, saying the dust and wind might not have been an issue on the day council enforcement officers visited.
Awapuni School is in the outer commercial zone and had also experienced dust as well as noise issues.
“This is an ongoing concern for our kura,” principal Kahu Walker said.
“The impact of dust blowing across our playgrounds, often during breaks, settling within the school grounds and classrooms, as well as the associated noise, is significant and, at times, disruptive to both teaching and learning.
“The health and wellbeing of our tamariki and staff is always a priority, and we would welcome any constructive dialogue with relevant agencies and parties to help address this matter,” Walker said.
Sunshine Brewery bar manager Kahu Jakicevich told the Herald that staff may clean tables and sweep the carpark of their premises on Awapuni Rd, but it was “not a major”, and the business had received no recent customer complaints.
The resident, meanwhile, said a number of residents had been affected by dust over time.
“We had a local community group here for a while. The dust is an issue for the whole of the Waikanae area.”
Trust Tairāwhiti was approached to find out if isite staff on Grey St had problems with the dust, but in a statement said “they haven’t experienced this issue”.