City’s noisiest street
Palmerston North’s noisiest street can be revealed.
Not surprisingly, student haven Ada St, with its couch burnings and late-night antics, has topped the list for the most noise complaints in the past two years, figures from the Palmerston North City Council show.
Ada St was quiet on Friday morning, with chirping birds, passing cars, and two small dogs barking at one of the street’s nicer houses.
A person there declined to comment, but Victor Hempel, who lives at the northern end of the street, said most of his neighbours got along despite the regular ruckus.
‘‘We are all a big family here. We’ve got a real close bond.’’
According to the council’s figures, bass and stereo noise complaints made up 6067 of the 7450 complaints in the city between January 2016 and September in 2017.
Other big sources of complaints include parties, house alarms, people yelling and bands.
In 2016, there were 279 noise complaints about Ada St houses, followed by the muchlonger Tremaine Ave and Ferguson St.
So far this year, there have been 111 complaints in Ada St, 74 on Tremaine Ave and 61 on Chelwood St.
Hempel’s Ada St house makes a bit of noise when they hold parties, but was not as bad as others.
‘‘We do party, but maybe have 10 or 20 people, not 500 or 600 people, with the whole road full,’’ Hempel said.
Although loud stereos were expected, people like to do burnouts and throw glass bottles on to the road, he said.
‘‘You hear that all Friday and Saturday night.’’
He had shut down some parties himself, mainly because they were held on nights early in the week.
‘‘I know it’s a party street, but bro, it’s mid week and they’re having a party on a Tuesday.
‘‘We at least know people are going to be partying on Thursday.’’
Michael Jensen, who recently moved to Ada St, said he had heard stories about the street before getting there.
‘‘Now, I see it myself and can see it’s a whole different atmosphere.
But Ada St was not the noisiest place he had lived, with a street near University of Waikato much louder.
‘‘This street is pretty bad, but [Hamilton] was a whole new ball game.’’
At the southern end of the street, Jeannie Wenley said her flat and others nearby had been visited by noise control before.
‘‘Someone across the street probably calls them. This probably is noisier than the average street.’’
Complaints were often easily dealt with by shutting doors or turning down the bass on the stereo, she said.
Flatmate Nicole Hamilton said they also had problems with some houses, including one of non-students wanting to party at the beginning of the week.
Before an upcoming party, the flat had dropped flyers to neighbours letting them know about noise.
The flat often registered their parties with police, who would drive by every now and then to make sure everyone was alright, Hamilton said.
City council environmental protection services head Graeme Gillespie said the list did not include barking dogs and animal noise complaints, as they were dealt with under different laws and bylaws.
The number of complaints is exactly that, not instances of excessive noise, he said.