Rudman's city: Summer adds to sufferings of victims of motorway wall

By BRIAN RUDMAN

It's a month since I last wrote of the noisy noise barrier alongside the regional botanic gardens at Manurewa and still the sleepless nights continue across the motorway in the neighbouring homes.

With the Ellerslie Flower Show about to open at the site in five days' time, there's now talk of picketing the event unless regional council politicians publicly commit themselves to funding remedial action. And who can blame the locals?

It's 10 months now since the $300,000 steel monstrosity was built, and ever since the people opposite have had to put up with an increased level of traffic noise reflected off the steel wall into their homes.

A house-to-house survey by locals showed that 24 of the 26 households nearest to the motorway were suffering from new noise. It revealed the different things people were employing to try to block it out, including wearing earplugs to bed and sleeping with radios blaring to mask the outside roar.

For 80 per cent of the sufferers the preferred remedy is to rip the wall down. They say demolition would cost $26,000 and would be worth every penny.

Regional council officials are claiming full removal will cost $100,000 and prefer the idea of remedial work instead.

This, they say, would preserve the new quietness within the park and stop the noise reflections as well.

Until a month ago the officials' hopes centred on a noise-absorbent board of concrete and wood called Woodtex, which could be attached to the wall and cost somewhere between $120,000 and $160,000 all up.

However, following my last column, Marcus Praetorius, of Newcon International Ltd, Hong Kong, has come up with a generous offer to provide free a cement-based sound-absorption panelling called Cemcom that his company developed.

Mr Praetorius was alerted to the problem by his Auckland agent, Rod Hall, who has worked with Mr Praetorius in the past on major projects such as the rail link between Hong Kong and the new Lantau Island international airport.

Mr Hall confirms that the materials will be free and says they will subsidise installation. They see it as a chance to showcase their product, and my feeling is that if it shapes up, why not?

Bruce Barber, the regional council's wall consultant, says the test reports supplied back up the acoustic claims for the product. By now a sample should have arrived for independent tests at Auckland University.

Both Woodtex and Cemcom are in the running. But if the newcomer passes the sound absorption tests and can be satisfactorily installed in conjunction with the existing wall, it is certainly a winner as far as price is concerned.

Whichever solution is chosen, either the retro-fitting of the old wall or its removal, the locals want rapid action. There's talk of it dragging on until at least March, which they find unacceptable.

Meanwhile, they're sleeping with their bedroom windows closed. With the heat and sultriness of summer, they want to be able to let the cooling night breezes in without having to cover their heads with pillows to block out the noise.

Talking of noise, Michael Reed QC, the big noise from the Judges Bay Action Group, was back before Judge Richard Bollard in the Environment Court on Monday.

You'll recall he had been ordered to elaborate on his appeal against the resource consent granted the Parnell Baths development.

But before the hearing got under way, Mr Reed met Judge Bollard in chambers.

It seems the QC was perturbed about the references the judge had made in his minute of the last conference on the matter, in particular his aside about Mr Reed referring in court to the fact that his wife was a District Court judge. Mr Bollard had noted that his judgment would not be influenced by "the professional calling of counsel's spouse."

From the bench and subsequently in his minute of Monday's session, Judge Bollard noted that "to the extent any comment in the court's earlier minute of 5 November 2001 may be viewed in any quarter as suggesting any impropriety of counsel for the Judges Bay Residents Group, the court accepts that no such suggestion of impropriety was intended".

But it didn't all go Mr Reed's way. Despite his objections, Mr Reed was directed to reveal the names of members of his mysterious residents' group by next Monday.

Judge Bollard has also fast-tracked proceedings, setting a special fixture date of February 13 to 15 for the appeal to be heard. With the support of all parties, he has also arranged a mediation session to try to reach settlement for December 17.

Mr Reed had been ordered to give more details of his grounds for appeal. He gave eight, none of them, interestingly enough, raising the issue driving the whole action, the problem of late-night hoons in the streets neighbouring the pool.

We can only hope that at mediation, common sense finally prevails.