Covid 19 coronavirus: Noise complaints drop across major cities- except Christchurch

Noise complaints in Wellington and Auckland have dropped during the lockdown. Photo / 123RF

Conscientious Kiwis in the Capital and Auckland have remained mostly quiet during the Covid-19 lockdown, but Christchurch residents appear to bucking the trend.

While most of the country was quietly settling into the first week of lockdown, Christchurch seemed to have turned up the music- with noise complaints rising from 138 in the weekdays the week before lockdown to 178 the following week's working days.

A council spokesperson said most of the complaints involved loud music and intrusive bass levels and in the second week of lockdown, there were 240 complaints including the weekend.

Wellington City Council received just 122 complaints in the first fortnight of the lockdown compared to 290 this time last year.

Auckland Council regulatory compliance manager Steve Pearce said prior to the shutdown there was around 1200 to 1300 complaints per week, but in the first few weeks of the shut down they saw just three or four hundred per week.

"Ordinarily, the majority of our noise complaints are party noise, we receive around 60,000 complaints a year and about 80 to 90 per cent of those are residential party noise.'

He said despite the reduction, anecdotally the noise control team have noticed a number of DIY construction complaints appearing.

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"Our staff are not attending noise control complaints, as they are not considered an essential service. We are however contacting people where we can to try and have the noise reduced and are working with police to have them attend to some escalated noise complaints."

A Wellington City Council spokesperson told the Herald they also won't be sending out noise control officers, unless there is an exceptional reason.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

For music lovers, Pearce said moving music inside or turning down the bass will help reduce the chances of people complaining about noise.

'I think ultimately talking to your neighbours [before being noisy], people will ultimately be good about it."

Although Christchurch residents may appear to be party animals, a spokesperson for the Christchurch City Council said more people were home during the weekdays while the lockdown was on and some people were now working from home.