Residents in a quiet Auckland neighbourhood had a rude awakening this week, when work on a building site started before the crack of dawn.
The Mount Albert building site at the centre of the noise complaints Photo: RNZ / Sarah Robson
Housing New Zealand is developing a site in Mount Albert for social housing, and construction got under way late last year.
But, on Wednesday morning, sub-contractors tasked with pouring concrete arrived well before the scheduled start time.
Ida Duckworth - who lives across the road from the construction site - usually gets up about 5am and goes out to get the paper.
Earlier this week, she noticed a big, noisy concrete truck with flashing lights arrive at the building site very early.
"Shortly after that, I'd just got back inside, and I heard this really loud noise start. It must have been the pump starting, getting ready to pump. Then the trucks with the concrete arriving. There was pumping, and loud pumping," she said.
"I couldn't believe it, I thought they can't be going to work at 5.30 in the morning."
Noisy construction work is only allowed after 7.30am in residential areas, according to Auckland Council rules.
Mrs Duckworth said, while the building work had created a bit of noise, it had not been too much of a problem until then.
"It's never been that early before. When I came back in it was 5.15 and I thought, well, that's ridiculous. They don't need to start at that hour, they're supposed to start at 7.30."
Before construction started, neighbours were sent letters outlining the work, including the time each day building would start and finish.
Grant Millar, the managing director of Precision Construction - the principal contractor for the Housing New Zealand project - said the sub-contractors doing the concrete pumping turned up early without permission.
"They were arranged to turn up at a certain time in the morning, they arrived an hour early and began pouring, without our permission, at that time."
Mr Millar said it was an isolated incident and his company was aware it needed to stick to the conditions of its resource consent, which detailed what time work could start and what time it needed to finish each day.
He said the company was putting in place extra measures to ensure everyone working on the site - sub-contractors and their employees - was aware of those conditions.
"Sometimes we'd hire a concrete plater and he in turn hires a concrete pump person and we don't know that the downstream communication has been done, so we'll be requiring in future for all the sub-contractors to sign off to acknowledge they are aware of those conditions."
Mr Millar said the company had written apology letters to residents, but Mrs Duckworth said she was yet to see one.
According to the council's rules, noisy construction work is only allowed during certain hours in residential areas - from 7.30am to 6pm - although some low-level noise is permitted before and after those times.
At weekends, construction work is allowed between 7.30am and 6pm on Saturdays, but not on Sundays.
However, there can be variations to this, depending on the conditions of the resource consent.
The council said it responded to noise complaints within the hour, no matter what time of day, and abatement notices could be issued in cases where there had been breaches.
In a statement, Housing New Zealand said it expected contractors and sub-contractors to follow Auckland Council rules and regulations, including starting and finishing times.
