Gun club told to halt range build

A shooting club battling its neighbours has been forced to stop building firing ranges.

Its owners have recently been served with abatement notices for earthworks on their two properties in Makarau, northwest of Auckland city.

Auckland Shooting Club opened in mid 2017 and has been mired in resistance and legal action from a nearby meditation centre and a local community group formed to oppose it. The groups were upset at the noise of distant gunfire, and concerned at the club’s plans to expanded.

Land owners Raymond O’Brien and Victoria Pichler are New Zealand representative shooters.

The pair was spending their life savings to build a world-class facility that would outlast them, O’Brien said. ‘‘The idea is that it will be a centre of excellence.’’

Auckland Council issued the first abatement notice on November 8 to force them to immediately halt building up to 13 firing ranges as well as car parking at the club, until they obtained resource consent.

A second notice was issued on January 18 to stop construction of ranges on an adjacent property, with the council saying it believed those ranges would be used by the gun club, without resource consent.

Private shooting was a permitted activity in the rural production zone.

O’Brien said the earthworks on the adjacent land were for different projects, each under an allowed 1000 square metres in size, but council enforcement officer David Firth said they all added up to exceed the limit.

O’Brien said the council was being overly careful due to the pressure of legal action by the club’s neighbours.

Dhamma Medini Vipassana Meditation Centre spokeswoman Kirsty McKay said gunshots from the range could be heard at the centre most days.

McKay said the noise had been quieter recently – perhaps to avoid provoking neighbours while consents were applied for – although some loud shots were still fired.

‘‘Last year the shots were very loud and very disturbing to our students, and to neighbours up to five kilometres away,’’ she said.

‘‘We have had students asking for earplugs, wanting to leave because of their PTSD being triggered, and complaining of difficulties concentrating,’’ she said.