City council has no issues with church noise

It seems neighbours of a suburban church will have to put up with loud preaching, chanting and drumming into the early hours of the morning.

Christchurch City Council says Light of All Nations church in Tankerville Rd, Hoon Hay has only reached a noise level leading to an excessive noise notice being issued once.

• Late night church racket angers neighbours

Noise control has responded to all 17 complaints about the church from residents in the neighbouring block of units.

The Star reported last week the neighbours are fed up with noisy services sometimes going until the early hours of the morning, particularly on weekends.

Neighbour Rona Clayton (right) wants the noise level required before action can be taken by noise control to be lowered in this case because of how close the units are to the church.

City council head of regulatory compliance Tracey Weston said this will not happen.

In residential areas, the noise level allowed from 10pm until 7am is between 40dB and 65dB.

Ms Weston said no sound equipment has been seized from the church because this noise level has not been reached.

“To date no sound equipment has been seized from the property, due to the seizure threshold not being reached. On the one occasion that the council has assessed the noise as excessive, a direction/written notice was served and no further complaints were received on that day,” she said.

Mrs Clayton does not accept this.

“For the people who have got their bedrooms right on that fence, especially right up further up the front, they are hearing everything, so therefore, in a situation like this I think it should be lower for this particular case,” she said.

Said Ms Weston: “ The noise limits applicable for all the zones in Christchurch are set in [the] Christchurch District Plan, and cannot be changed by the council noise control.”

Meanwhile, Mrs Clayton said Wigram MP Megan Woods wants to organise a meeting between the concerned neighbours, representatives from the church and city council and the church’s landlord Marilyn Paston.

Ms Weston said city council staff “can be there” if a meeting takes place.

Ms Paston would not say if she will attend the meeting if it is arranged.

Light of all Nations senior apostle Peter Emadi could not be reached for comment.