Stadium event noise complaints drop from 58 last year to just six

A sharp drop in noise complaints from O-Week events at Forsyth Barr Stadium this year was probably due to increased public awareness of the events, council environmental health co-ordinator Ros MacGill says.

There were in total six noise complaints this year, with three from the toga party and three from the Macklemore gig. The complaints came from the Dalmore, Pine Hill and Signal Hill areas, Ms MacGill said.

This comes a year after 58 noise complaints were made to the council about events at the stadium last O-Week. Asked why there had been such a sharp decline, she said: ''I would say it is due to the amount of publicity around the events and also the flyers that the OUSA have posted.

''The planning department also sent letters to all the complainants from last year informing them what was happening, so that may have helped to.''

The amount of noise from both events was ''similar'' to those held at the stadium during last O-Week.

''We did some noise readings and we will send them off to the planning department for them to review and Otago University Students' Association [OUSA] will have to apply for resource consent again [for events during next O-Week],'' she said.

OUSA president Francisco Hernandez said getting fewer complaints showed its communication efforts had worked.

''We are really pleased there were fewer complaints than last year and want to thank Dunedin for being so understanding,'' Mr Hernandez said.

It also vindicated the council's decision to allow them to run events to midnight and he hoped it boded well for OUSA being able to hold ''big positive events'' in future.

Resource consents manager Alan Worthington said having fewer complaints could help OUSA when it applied for resource consents for events for next year's O-Week.

The number of complaints made from the two O-Week events were comparable to the number made at other concerts held at the stadium, including Elton John and the Winery Tour.