{"id":9911,"date":"2026-02-11T15:52:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T02:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=9911"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:33:08","slug":"music-shouting-and-car-horns-couple-says-noise-from-church-is-unbearable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=9911","title":{"rendered":"Music, shouting and car horns: couple says noise from church is unbearable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Story by Amy Ridout\/Stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple who live beside a church say late-night music, shouting and drumming is making their lives a misery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Morris and Jessica first viewed their apartment on Auckland\u2019s Dominion Rd last July, they took note of the Dominion Tongan Methodist Church next door, where a sign advertised daytime services on Wednesdays and Sundays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after they moved in, they realised the church hosted gatherings most nights. And two or three times each week, the noise is loud enough to keep their 4-year-old son awake, they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe hear the band, music, we can hear the drums. Sometimes you\u2019re trying to get to sleep and you hear yelling outside,\u201d said Jessica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Auckland Council spokesperson said nine individuals had made 39 noise complaints about the church in the last two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These included reports from Morris and Jessica, who sent Stuff<\/em> a log of complaints sent to the council and the church, and time-stamped videos capturing the noise that started in the church and spilled out into the car park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One video captures the excitement during a football game: hours of car horns and shouting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/
Jessica and Morris, who live beside the church on Dominion Rd, say their quality of life has been impacted by singing, music and shouting. Photo: Google Maps<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The noise impacts the family most between 9pm and 11pm. Their son, whose bedroom faced the car park, bore the brunt, the couple said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emails to the church had mostly gone unanswered, but that since they began complaining there had been some improvement, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had considered moving, but said it would be difficult because they had signed a two-year rental agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope we can solve this problem so we can keep living here, but we might have to move out,\u201d said Jessica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reducing the number of events or having someone supervising people in the car park could help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe know the church might take some actions but they can\u2019t control every single individual. Some people just yell and don\u2019t care about other people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methodist Church of New Zealand general secretary Rev Tara Tautari said she was aware of concerns and the church was engaging \u201copenly and constructively\u201d with the council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a long-established congregation with a vibrant faith community that cares deeply about its place in the wider community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRev Kuli Fisi\u2019iahi, who has recently been appointed to the parish, is working in good faith with those involved to listen carefully, build understanding and support a peaceful and practical way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple confirmed they had complained to the council several times. They believed noise control officers were slow to attend and felt frustrated by the limited enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had also approached councillors, including Christine Fletcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fletcher told Stuff<\/em> she was aware of the complaints and was waiting to hear more from staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said council lacked the resources to enforce every infringement, be it noise or dog control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt can be very hard for people to get the responses they want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Fletcher said she has dealt with similar issues in the past, and felt hopeful that a solution could be found for a church she considered an important place for the Tongan community to gather, socialise and sing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veronica Lee-Thomspon, the council\u2019s special operations manager for licensing and environmental health, said the church had been issued with one \u201cexcessive noise direction\u201c in the past two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a direction requires excessive noise to stop for eight days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Officers found the other complaints were either not excessive, or were withdrawn by the complainant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaints, which concerned \u201cmusic and people noise\u201d were assessed by a noise control officer, under Resource Management Act provisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen forming their opinion, the officer will consider the time of day or night, the nature of the noise, the location (a commercial versus a residential area) and the volume of the noise including any special characteristics such as bass.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in light of the complaints, the council planned to take a closer look at whether the church\u2019s activities complied with the Auckland Unitary Plan rules that set out how much noise an activity is allowed to make.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was first published by Stuff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Story by Amy Ridout\/Stuff. A couple who live beside a church say late-night music, shouting and drumming is making their lives a misery. When Morris and Jessica first viewed their apartment on Auckland\u2019s Dominion Rd last July, they took note of the Dominion Tongan Methodist Church next door, where a sign advertised daytime services on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40],"tags":[117,113,519],"coauthors":[426],"class_list":{"0":"post-9911","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-faith","8":"tag-church","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-noise"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ears.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9913,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9911\/revisions\/9913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9911"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=9911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}