Our Submission to Council

Submission- read to the ChCh City Council On August 24th 2006

This problem is about Noise Pollution - pure and simple - and how it is affecting the health and lives of ratepayers and residents in our area

Living within a 5 km radius of a motor racing facility should not disqualify people from the basic human right to enjoy some peace and quiet , especially over the summer months , when everybody likes to get out and enjoy the warmer weather and longer evenings

The Christchurch City Council is the Landlord of the area leased to Motor Racing Interests in Canterbury. Your tenants, up until recently, have been good neighbours . However since the City Plan has taken effect your tenants have become the proverbial neighbours from hell . The amount of noise and associated problems coming from the Powerbuilt facility at Ruapuna now amounts to what could only be described as a Legal Nuisance.

Prior to 1999 Ruapuna was allowed to make noise between 65 dbA (l10) and 85 DbA 120 days a year between 9 am and 7 pm – the rest of the time they had to comply with Open Space 3.

For those who live in our area these rules afforded us protection, gave us a good amount of quiet time and allowed Ruapuna users a good crack at what is a very noisy pastime.

After 1999 Ruapuna was permitted to make noise up to 90 dbA on any day of the year ( 365 days ) and on 200 of these days they are allowed to make noise up to 95 dbA – between 9 am and 11 pm

These rules may have looked harmless on paper, and theory is all very well but we are here to tell you that in real life they are causing health problems and heartache and this part of the City Plan simply isn’t working

So that you might know what these decibel numbers sound like we would like to show you a video, some of this footage was taken from the house of a nearby resident and some of it was taken 1.4 km away. You will see a short passage which starts with some birdsong, this is the sound of one car on the track, it’s followed by footage of the same car taken from inside the home of a local, all doors and windows are shut . All of this noise you are about to hear is heard in the Templeton Township as the second statement in your information package shows and the speedway noise at the end can easily be heard up to 10 km away on many nights. The first footage is of drift racing ( DVD of Noise played to Councillors )

Overseas Noise Pollution Experts have commented that this noise is outrageous and one states that the levels set in the City Plan are the highest he has seen in his 30 years as a Noise Expert.

You will know by now, that there are many, many weeks when we are exposed to Noise seven days a week, and on some of these days we are exposed to noise from nine in the morning until, literally , past 11 at night.

That’s an appalling FOURTEEN hours a day. Most days in the summer we average 6-8 hours a day and by anyone’s standards that’s a disgrace.

We have often had to listen to that Speedway Noise (A DVD of Noise from Ruapuna was played to Councillors * ) until close to midnight, when both adults and children are trying to sleep . A mother in W********* road, well over 5km away tells us that her children are kept awake by this noise. Sometimes we listen to that noise twice on ONE weekend.

Compare this with this Australian example of Motor Racing Noise Levels in your information package.

 We KNOW that Ruapuna complies with the City Plan, although does not absolve it from
adherence  to Section 16 of the Resource Management Act – we know the numbers and
we know that your  noise experts say that they are acceptable.They are NOT acceptable.
It is not acceptable that  ratepayers have to leave their own homes for hours on end,
day after day,  to find peace and quiet,  it is NOT acceptable that some in our community
are suffering ill health because of this noise and it is NOT acceptable that two summers
have passed  and now we are looking at another  “summer from hell” 

In many countries overseas it is seen as imperative to PROTECT people from Noise Pollution, but here it seems it was OK to actually increase the dose of noise emitted into our Community , we would have thought it sensible to either lower noise levels and increase days or decrease days and raise noise levels .. but to actually treble days of operation and more than Double Noise Levels beggars belief ,

We think that people living near a motor racing facility should be protected not punished

* Councillor Barry Corbett later told us that he was an audio expert and in his opinion the noise levels on the DVD had been fiddled with and that is why he voted against us .How many Councillors did he influence and how much damage did he do with his self proclaimed Audio "expertise" ?