Judge tells ARC to break motorway sound barrier

By ANNE BESTON and BRIAN RUDMAN

The Auckland Regional Council has been ordered to demolish its $300,000 Botanic Gardens noise barrier within 42 days.

In what is seen as a humiliating defeat for the council, Environment Court Judge Frederick McElrea has ruled that the noise effect from the wall is "substantial" and problems associated with it are "entirely of the regional council's own making".

In his written decision, the judge painted an unflattering portrait of a council determined to get its way at all costs, refusing to believe the complaints of "straightforward, genuine and credible" residents.

The 3.5m by 440m wall was put up two years ago to shield the Regional Botanic Gardens at Manurewa from motorway noise.

But about 50 residents living opposite complained the barrier bounced noise on to their homes so that they could not sleep at night, hear their televisions or sit outside.

They fought to have the wall removed, but after further acoustic testing the council refused.

Residents then got support from the city council, which did its own tests. The regional council again refused to remove the barrier but agreed to clad it with sound-absorbent material.

Two weeks before an Environment Court hearing began the residents requested further noise tests, which the ARC refused.*

Judge McElrea said the council "chose to play for higher stakes and lost".

At the last minute, the council also asked that the residents be ordered to give security for costs - to provide proof they could pay costs awarded against them.

That application "reflected an unnecessarily adversarial approach ... that did not become a local body", the judge said.

The council's acoustic experts also came in for sharp criticism.

Consultant Christopher Day, of Marshall Day, blamed a change in wind direction after the wall was built for the perceived increase in noise, an argument rejected by the court. Mr Day appeared to be "defending the work done by his firm ... and his answers were not always reliable", said the judge.

Manurewa resident Russell Craig, aged 73, yesterday welcomed the ruling but said the issue had put him and his wife into debt and forced them to sell their home.

ARC parks committee chairman Bill Burrill said the council was considering its position.

* CORRECTION: In the original version of this story, we stated incorrectly that the ARC had promised to conduct additional noise tests two weeks before the hearing in the Environment Court began.