Blenheim residents clash with council over noisy building site

When 77-year-old Dave McFarlane and his partner Dorothy Lewis sit in their living room, noise from the nearby construction site plays like a background radio.

Not just during normal operating hours, McFarlane said, but at all hours of the day.

“They were out there working until four or five o'clock on a Saturday,” McFarlane said.

“And they were doing vibro-rolling. If they do vibro-rolling over there, this whole house shakes.”

Vibro-rolling used a heavy duty roller to compact the ground with vibration.

McFarlane said he thought that when the Marlborough District Council approved the development of the business park opposite his Aerodrome Rd property, it would enforce the usual limits on operating hours.

But because the property was in an industrial zone, the council said there were no limits on operating hours except for land disturbance works.

Vector One Nine Ltd was developing the site into a 50-lot business park, consent documents showed.

Director Phil Robinson said the council had not been in touch with him about any complaints. They would have been dealt with by one of the three or four contractors on site, he said.

McFarlane and Lewis’ property, on the west side of Aerodrome Rd, was in a rural zone. The industrial-zoned construction site was between Omaka Aerodrome to the south, Taylor River Reserve to the east, and the Omaka Landing subdivision to the north, which was zoned urban residential.

The construction site’s zoning was changed from rural to industrial in the region’s major planning document, the Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan, which was finished in 2020. An appeal of the new zoning by Omaka Landing’s developers was rejected.

In January, McFarlane phoned the council to complain about vibro-rolling on a Saturday afternoon.

A council staffer told him the operating hours were Monday to Friday, and until noon on a Saturday, McFarlane said.

“And I was quite happy with that because that’s pretty normal.”

On May 24, when workers started erecting a building outside of those hours, McFarlane contacted the council again.

“You can hear the vehicles going over there,” he said. “I could hear all that on the Saturday when they were working.

“[The council] came back and said, ‘no ... there's no conditions, no hours’, and I thought ‘that's weird’ because I know for a fact there was,” he said, referring to the phone call in January.

Council compliance manager Rachel Williams said because the site had industrial zoning, the only restrictions on operating hours were for land disturbance works.

Use of the vibro-roller did not count as land disturbance works, Williams said.

“Equipment operators were spoken to on site and they decided to restrict their hours, which was done voluntarily on their part to address the complainant’s concerns,” Williams said.

“Under the Proposed Marlborough Environment Plan, there are no rules that restrict the hours of construction, rather the rules relate to mitigating effects such as noise through standards that limit noise levels,” Williams said.

“To date no evidence of a breach has been found.”

McFarlane said he thought he should have been consulted back when the resource consent was lodged with the council, particularly given there was no limit on operating hours.

“Somebody decided it wasn't notifiable because there was nobody impacted. Yeah right," he said.

“It’s directly opposite all our land.

“This council is doing what the hell they feel like whenever they feel like it, and to hell with the rest of us.”

McFarlane met with the council on June 10.

He said they reiterated that the site was zoned as an industrial area, but told him to call council if a vibro-roller was in use on a Saturday.

“They said everything was done by process. They seem very reluctant to admit there might be a problem.”

McFarlane said he planned on writing a detailed letter to council laying out his complaint.

“So it continues,” he said.

Williams said that the council would continue to work with McFarlane to address his concerns.

By Kira Carrington, Local Democracy Reporter

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.