Pistol club looking for new home - again

Gun club members in action before a recent Environment Court decision around noise. Picture by Paul Rickard

Gisborne Pistol Club is asking the public to help it find a suitable site to relocate to after an Environment Court decision which members say threatens the club's viability.

A club spokeswoman said the court's conditions were “severely restrictive”.

The interim decision requires the club to reduce its hours of operation and noise levels at the Gaddums Hill site where it has been based since the late 1980s.

Richard Davis, supported by other residential neighbours of the pistol club, succeeded in his appeal against the club and Gisborne District Council, and a previous commissioner's review of the conditions of a 2001 resource consent.

Submissions by Mr Davis and other neighbours in the appeal included — noise controls were ineffective and the district council had done “nothing about it”; that police training at the club one night had been “particularly frightening; that gun fire could be heard through double-glazed windows; and that children “generally” had to stay inside during shooting.

Environment Court Judge Melinda Dickey said experts agreed with residents that noise discharge was unreasonable.

The existing noise levels were too high, too intense, went on for too long and were unreasonable by a “significant degree”.

The interim decision comes into effect on July 29, with noise limits set.

For the period ending June 30, 2022, the noise limit is 65 dB LAFmax (an exception is made for police Glock pistols), and the noise limit is then further reduced to 55 dB LAFmax.

The interim decision says there should be no shooting on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays or Sundays, all public holidays and in the period from December 23 to January 2. Shooting may only occur on Tuesdays from 9am to 5pm, Saturday from 9am to 4pm and every second Wednesday from 9am to 5pm for the period to June 30, 2022, and on every fourth Wednesday after that date.

Police may undertake shooting up to 9pm on a maximum of two of the permitted weekdays in any calendar year.

Judge Dickey said there was variable evidence on what hours the club operated, but the court was satisfied the club operated outside the hours of the 2001 consent, and the police “substantially more”.

The club spokeswoman said Gisborne District Council initiated the commissioner's hearing to review the club's consent after complaints from neighbours. The outcome of the review was a serious reduction in the number of days and hours the club could operate.

The club could have lived with that.

“The neighbours, not being happy with that decision, went to the Environment Court and this led to the decision which now threatens the existence of the club.”

“The club has been trying hard to find an alternative site but Resource Management Act hurdles thrown in its path have been very high.”

In 2017, the club, with assistance from the council, gained a consent to operate at a site at Waerenga-o-Kuri.

But the club cancelled the consent as it did not have sufficient finances to fight legal action from a neighbour.

“The club has now lost nearly half of its membership over recent years due to this ongoing issue and now faces enormous financial hurdles to continue to operate.

“If any member of the public knows of or has a small area of land suitable to relocate the club to and sufficiently far away from residential homes, please contact the club.”

Judge Dickey said she did not accept that the court's decision threatened the club's viability.

Viability could not be assessed on the ground that it operated on the days and hours it had in the past, or operate at levels of “shooting noise, loudness and intensity that continue to cause adverse effects on the amenity and health of nearby residents”.

An interim period of two years “provides sufficient time for the club to seek a variation to its existing consent to allow other activities or to seek new consents for more activities at the site or an alternative site”.