Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

No relief from building noise

Laurel Stowell
By Laurel Stowell
Reporter·Whanganui Chronicle·
6 Apr, 2005 03:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article


Boom times in Wanganui come at a price for some ? and one of those prices is noise.
Christodoulos Moisa said he and his partner had to leave their Durie Hill house at noon on Good Friday to escape construction noise from next door.
They left after five calls to Wanganui District
Council's 24-hour noise control service and being told there was nothing its officers could do because that level of noise was permitted.
Mr Moisa said he was a teacher and his partner worked in Wellington, opposite a noisy construction site. By Easter weekend they were ready for some quiet.
"We had had a gutsful."
There were four houses being built at the front and to the side of his property, with much of the work on one of them being done on weekends and holidays, starting as early at 6.30am and going on until 7.30pm. There was also empty land and talk of further subdivision in the area. Noise from trucks driving and reversing, diggers, chainsaws, bulldozers and tradesmen's radios had all annoyed, and Mr Moisa said he had made many complaints.
He said he knew construction noise was a difficult matter, and he was not against progress, but suggested that residents should warn neighbours if they intended to do prolonged, noisy construction, and also that consultation and consent should be required for major projects and there should be stricter noise rules for weekends and public holidays.
Wanganui District Council regulatory services manager Bob Davies said Durie Hill was in a residential zone where noise between 7am and 6pm must not exceed 50dBA for more than 10 percent of the time, and 40 dBA during the night hours.
Someone standing next to a lawnmower would be getting noise of 60dBA to 70dBA. But construction noise did not have to comply with those rules, Mr Davies said. If it did, no construction would be possible because it was too noisy. This was obviously unreasonable.
Construction noise was therefore exempt from normal rules but had to comply with national standards. The ones used in Wanganui were a limit of 64dBA on the neighbour's doorstep between the hours of 6am and 10pm. The level was only slightly less for weekends and public holidays.
People assessing the noise also had to take into account whether those producing it were being reasonable and containing it as much as possible.
With increasing subdivision and development happening in the district, council environmental health officer Mike Sigley said a tightening of rules could be needed.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui ChronicleUpdated

Defence Force's Waiōuru housing project fails to break ground

11 Jun 11:30 PM
Whanganui ChronicleUpdated

Watch: Discover top talent at this year's Smokefreerockquest

11 Jun 11:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

‘The model works’: This sport and culture programme is changing lives

11 Jun 09:17 PM

Clean water fuelling Pacific futures

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Defence Force's Waiōuru housing project fails to break ground

Defence Force's Waiōuru housing project fails to break ground

11 Jun 11:30 PM

Budget 2023 earmarked the thick end of $75 million for 50 new houses.

Watch: Discover top talent at this year's Smokefreerockquest

Watch: Discover top talent at this year's Smokefreerockquest

11 Jun 11:00 PM
‘The model works’: This sport and culture programme is changing lives

‘The model works’: This sport and culture programme is changing lives

11 Jun 09:17 PM
Sub-union rugby game ends 15-year hiatus

Sub-union rugby game ends 15-year hiatus

11 Jun 05:00 PM
It was just a stopover – 18 months later, they call it home
sponsored

It was just a stopover – 18 months later, they call it home

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search