Noise health hazard: Residents

Some residents have now raised concerns that the noise coming from the Lumbercube mill is affecting their health.

Some Eastside residents say the noise from the Lumbercube mill is now affecting their health, as experts continue with testing.

Officials from Lumbercube and Rotorua Lakes Council met yesterday to discuss the ongoing noise issues that have attracted more than 700 complaints since the mill opened in September.

Even though the operation was shut over Easter, people commenting on the Facebook page the Eastside Residents Action Group still complained about noise they thought was coming from the mill.

A resident, who spoke on the condition she was not named, told the Rotorua Daily Post she would be visiting her doctor this week. She has a family history of heart disease and is concerned her blood pressure is building, and is "exhausted, mentally drained and really down" as a result of the noise.

"I've almost thought I had to call an ambulance a couple of nights.

"Fortunately we had a bit of a respite over Easter, but I went away anyway. I didn't want to be around when they started banging and crashing again on Tuesday morning."

She said she made a noise complaint at 2am yesterday despite wearing earphones to bed to block out the "loud and constant banging and crashing".

"But that didn't work. Leading up to Easter I was having a broken sleep every night and the constant noise just gets inside your brain, you can't block it out.

"Home has not felt like home, it's not a private place anymore, I have no safe haven."

Others on the page had similar complaints.

"I'm not looking forward to sleepless nights, feeling grumpy and trying but failing miserably to concentrate at work," said one. "Stress and lack of sleep from the noise is creating health issues," said another.

Another said selling up was an option but no one would want to move into the area now.

"No sleep last night, can't stay home from work to rest as noise is even worse this morning."

In a statement from Lumbercube and the council yesterday both parties agreed there were many issues complicating noise analysis attached to the complaints and "these now require the services of expert noise professionals to compare and work through".

"Weather conditions, low cloud and rain, and ambient noise in the industrial and Te Ngae Rd area have been among the complicating factors experienced during testing by both council and Lumbercube," the council's chief operating officer Dave Foster said.

He said council staff responded to 15 noise complaints around Lynmore yesterday but "gaining accurate and usable readings was simply not possible".

Pedersen Group chief operating officer Gavin Hudson said Lumbercube's sound experts, Marshall Day, was having similar issues.

"We need our experts to work with council's. These are the best people to provide the appropriate peer reviews," Mr Hudson said.

Mr Foster said it was also evident not all the noise was coming from the mill.

"We've had some complaints when the mill simply isn't operating, while on investigation of others the noise has actually been sourced to other operations in the surrounding industrial area.

"In the interim Lumbercube is voluntarily undertaking further works on site that will further reduce emissions. This includes modifications to loader exhaust systems and ongoing additional building works."