1am noise amnesty for New Year's Eve

For many of Auckland city's residents, New Year's Eve is a time to kick up their heels and celebrate.

In recognition of this, Auckland City's noise control officers will not investigate noise complaints from 6pm, Saturday 31 December 2005 until 1am, Sunday 1 January 2006.

"It is a reasonable community expectation to celebrate the New Year in the traditional way, with a party to see the New Year in and with the seven-hour amnesty we are trying to balance the needs of the community in the most appropriate way," says Chris Dee, Auckland City's environmental health and licensing manager.

"But from 1am it will be business as usual, with noise control officers visiting properties to investigate complaints."

"We encourage people to be considerate of their neighbours as much as possible on New Year's Eve and throughout the busy Christmas period."

Here are some things you can keep in mind:

ensure burglar alarms are installed correctly and are not oversensitive or faulty. If you're going away, give a trusted neighbour a contact number in case in case the alarm goes off by mistake

inform neighbours in advance about a party or invite them. Ask them to contact you if the noise gets too loud.

minimise noise travelling from the property by keeping doors or windows closed

turn the noise down at a reasonable hour at night, eg. 10pm

Other councils have regularly had this style of amnesty during New Year's Eve in the past. This is the second year Auckland City Council has aligned itself with other councils in the region to ensure a unified response to noise.

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