Neighbours at odds over dogs

Steve Clark's rural Dairy Flat property. Photo / Janna Dixon

Relations between a prominent greyhound trainer and his neighbours have disintegrated into fenceline shouting matches, after they complained about the incessant barking of his kennel of racing dogs.

Steve Clark keeps 16 greyhounds at his rural home in Dairy Flat, north of Auckland. Among the sleek canines is one of the nation's best, 2010 Duke of Edinburgh Silver Collar winner Swift Fantasy.

Last year Clark was made to shut the dogs up by the Rodney District Council. In October last year, he was issued an abatement notice, telling him a nuisance was being created by persistent howling or barking from the dogs and he was to stop the nuisance by any means possible.

But the 55-year-old is appealing the notice at an Auckland Council hearing next week, claiming that although his dogs make noise, the issue's not as bad as his neighbours claim.

Clark said: "It's their right to complain and I think my dogs aren't as bad as they make out."

He made no apology for yelling at his neighbours: He said they stand on his boundary videotaping and deliberately provoking the dogs and him.

Apart from three neighbours, nobody else in the neighbourhood had a problem with the dogs, said Clark.

He said he would comment further after the hearing.

An initial animal control investigation last year showed four neighbours suggested there was a barking problem and three stated that while the dogs barked occasionally, there was no problem.

Some neighbours are vocal in their dislike of the barking.

Phil Finlayson is one of them: He said this week that the noise was often so loud that he couldn't have a normal conversation.

"During the day it's terrible."

When Finlayson moved to the rural neighbourhood, Clark already lived there. Finlayson said he moved there to have some peace and quiet - but incessant barking affected his and his family's quality of life.

"It's not why we shifted out here," he said.

Even after the abatement notice was served, Finlayson claimed the noise had continued. "It's getting worse and worse and worse."

Finlayson alleged that when some neighbours approached Clark he became abusive.

"He'll just swear and abuse you. He's never been approachable."

He also alleged that Clark ran his tractor "at full noise with no muffler", non-stop 12 hours every day for three weeks after the abatement notice was served.

Nigel Little moved to the neighbourhood last year. He said the noise started in the early hours of the morning.

"There wouldn't be an hour go past without noise."

Longtime neighbour Anthony Woodward, who moved into the subdivision at the same time as Clark, said it had been an ongoing problem.

He had lengthy videotapes on which he had recorded Clark and his dogs. Woodward would not release the footage until after the hearing.

But another neighbour, who refused to be named, said it wasn't a problem for her.

"I only really hear them at feeding time," she said.

Planning consultant David Wren said the zoning of the land - Rural 1 - meant there wasn't much the neighbours could complain about.

"When you're living in a rural area you have to expect noise from agriculture."

Busking and barking

Steve Clark is not the first high-profile figure to be subject to noise complaints.

Well-loved Wellington personality Kenny the busker was at the centre of bureaucratic controversy when the Wellington City Council seized his guitar amp after complaints from residents near Kenny's Courtenay Place spot in the mid-to-late 1990s.

His amp was not returned in 1999 because Kenny could not assure control officers he'd keep the noise down. It's also not the first time dogs have driven neighbours crazy.

In 2006 the Rotorua SPCA was in danger of closing after complaints about its dogs. Other frequent sources of noise complaints are roosters and newborn babies.

Are you in a dispute with your neighbours? Email news@hos.co.nz