By Alesha Capone
During the 24 months since August last year, the council has received and investigated 520 complaints regarding neighbourhood noise.
The council’s city development general manager Stephen Sully said most of the cases were resolved “through giving information and education to the alleged perpetrators.”
“Formal warning notices were issued in 90 cases, and Penalty Infringement Notices were issued for six cases of continued noise occurring outside of prescribed hours,” he said.
“Penalty infringement notices were issued to residents in Taylors Lakes, Deer Park, St Albans (and) Sunshine West.
“Every resident in Brimbank has a responsibility to live within the community in a way that does not adversely affect others in their neighbourhood.
“The occurrence of loud anti-social noise at inappropriate times can adversely affect a number of people within a small area.”
Senior Sergeant Fred Grove from Sunshine Police Station said noise which breached certain levels was considered an offence under the Environment Protection Act and Brimbank officers sometimes attended complaints on the issue.
“Quite often they are called, generally in regard to loud music or from someone’s stereo,” he said.
“Most people are pretty reasonable and don’t call unless it’s in the early hours of the morning when they are trying to sleep.”
Albanvale Residents Association spokeswoman Clare Brennan said parties, bands who practiced in garages and vehicle stereos often emitted loud noise in the area.
“You hear the thump, thump, thump come out of streets all the time, it’s shocking,” she said.
“There are often cars with a thump, thump, thump going as they drive around.
“They pull up in front of a neighbour’s place and we sometimes ask them to turn it down because the grandkids might be sleeping.
“They do, for four or five minutes, then it goes up again.”
“It can be very annoying and most people aren’t aware of the requirements of the EPA legislation,” David Anderson, from the Delahey Action Group, said.
“It happens from time to time. We ask them to turn it down or call the police.”
