Noisy flatbread factory keeps neighbours up at night, with some packing up and leaving

Monday, 15 March 2021

Silverstream resident Helen Chapman moved into her dream home only to discover the 24/7 noise from the neighbouring Farrah's factory. (First published March 16, 2019)

Noise from a food manufacturer’s plant has neighbours at their wits’ end, with one going as far as to move out of her home.

Helen Chapman said the low-pitched throbbing of machinery from the nearby Farrah’s flatbread factory cuts through the windows and walls of her Upper Hutt home at all hours.

“My dream home has become a nightmare.”

Unable to sleep or work, she shifted out earlier this year for several weeks. She reluctantly returned to the home for family reasons, and to the incessant noise.

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Silverstream resident Helen Chapman moved out of her home because of a low-frequency sound generated by machinery from the Farrah's flatbread factory. She and other residents say their complaints have gone unaddressed by the company and the council for months.

“I can't sleep at night. It's like the noise is in my pillow – I can’t shut it out.

“I’m constantly on edge because of the sleep deprivation. [I work from home] and I can’t concentrate. It’s halved my income.”

Since the company ramped up its operations about a year ago, Chapman and other residents told Stuff they had been unable to sleep.

Silverstream resident Neil Pullar is unimpressed with the view he now has of the Farrah’s flour silo from his living room.

An Upper Hutt City Council spokeswoman said the source of the sound was from oven exhaust fans, while further noise came from the filling of a flour silo.

The city’s District Plan sets out noise limits between 7am and 7pm of 50 decibels (dB) in residential zones and 65dB in commercial areas.

Testing showed noise exceeded the plan’s night-time factory limit of 35dB by 11dB. Noise from the loading of a flour silo at the factory reached 71dB, she said.

The 15.5-metre silo also breached height restrictions by 3.5m and had been installed without consent. An application was retroactively lodged in December last year.

The tower is visible from Neil Pullar’s living room. On sunny days, it projected a strong glare into his home, he said.

Pullar said Farrah’s had been allowed to get away with ignoring bylaws, and the council had done little to pull the company into line.

“It offends me that they can get away with it. [The council] have sent the wrong message – if you break the law, there should be consequences.”

The 15.3-metre silo at the Farrah's factory as seen from Kurth Cres, Silverstream.

The company had applied to install a second silo, which Pullar said he would oppose.

The Upper Hutt City Council has received and responded to complaints from 26 households about Farrah’s, with some households making multiple complaints.

The council spokeswoman said the council needed to give full consideration to the environmental and economic effects of taking enforcement action.

To date, the council had engaged with Farrah’s to get it to lodge consents to address the noise and building breaches, asked the business to identify mitigation options, and appointed its own noise consultants. It also asked Farrah’s to attempt measures to lower noise output.

The spokesperson said the council believed the appropriate course of action was to work with Farrah’s to resolve the problem.

But this didn’t wash with Pullar or Chapman. They said it had been business as usual at the factory despite the first complaints being lodged a year ago.

Farrah’s bought the 23,500-square-metre warehouse in 2017. Farrah’s received a grant as part of the council’s economic development stimulus policy. The sum was commercially sensitive, the spokeswoman said.

Farrah’s director Jovan Čanak said the company accepted there was an issue and was committed to fixing it.

“We have spent large amounts of money working towards identifying the issue and engaging with a raft of experts with efforts towards fixing this.

“Unfortunately we are reliant upon experts and are waiting for a definitive statement from council advisers. Once we have got this we will be able to respond to council and take any appropriate action.”