Mill's holiday closure delights residents

A quiet Lumbercube mill during Easter weekend pleased locals.

Residents in the surrounding area of the Lumbercube mill enjoyed peace and quiet over the weekend of Easter.

Rotorua Lakes Council chief operating officer Dave Foster had said production at the mill's yard on Vaughan Rd would shut down from Thursday night last week and would start again this morning.

Deputy mayor and Lynmore resident Dave Donaldson said a few people had commented to him they had enjoyed a very quiet and peaceful Easter weekend.

Mr Donaldson said he had been out of Rotorua for the early part of the weekend and got back on Sunday night, but had probably two or three people comment.

He had spoken to a handful of neighbours and friends out in the forest, he said.

"The subject does crop up."

People were frustrated and angry because of the noise, though still wanted the mill to be successful, he said.

"They just do not want the noise impacting their home life the way it has."

He said they were now waiting to see what the effect would be once production resumed today.

Work done by the mill before Easter to reduce the noise had been successful in some areas according to people he had spoken to on Tennyson Drive and the Eastlake area, Mr Donaldson said. Comments on the Eastside Residents Action Group - Rotorua Facebook page, which was set up as a result of the mill noise, showed people enjoyed the quiet weekend.

Some of the comments include: "It's amazing how nice and quiet the area is with the mill shut. Makes us realise how intrusive the noise was when running", "Home feels like home again!", "So nice to get some brief respite from the constant drone of Lumbercube. Lynmore for now, is once again a peaceful and tranquil suburb", "So this is what it is like to be normal - may it remain this way" and "Magic! The peace is bliss and wow, we can go to bed with our windows open, as we have since moving here 15 years ago - that was until our nights were destroyed by constant rumbling and crashing."

Pedersen Group, which owns the mill, chief operating officer Gavin Hudson previously told the Rotorua Daily Post work to reduce noise was almost complete, but a peer review of scientific testing could take one or two more weeks.