A noisy party at the weekend landed a Wanaka resident with more than a sore head on Sunday morning, CivicCorp enforcement principal Tim Francis said.

"Noise control was called to a Totara Terrace party at 9.15pm and the occupant warned that the noise of the stereo was excessive," Mr Francis said.

Noise control was called back to the same address at 11.40pm.

"At that point an excessive directive was served, which really means you need to turn down the noise immediately to a reasonable level," Mr Francis said.

Initially the directive was complied with but at 12.40am noise control received another call.

"This time they returned to the address accompanied by the police. The noise was assessed as being excessive and the stereo was seized," Mr Francis said.

The decision on the part of the occupiers of the address to ignore the earlier warnings proved costly.

"The seized property will only be returned when the Council is satisfied that in doing so, excessive noise will not result. The owner must also pay all costs incurred by the Council in terms of seizing the item, impounding it, transporting and storing it, before the stereo is returned," Mr Francis said.

The Council also had a further option of imposing an infringement notice of $500 for failure to comply with the initial direction issued.

"With the summer here it is timely to remind residents that firstly they need to be considerate of neighbours or pay the price and secondly they don't need to put up with it when they are on the receiving end," he said.

A noise complaint could be made 24-hours-of-the-day by ringing either the Wanaka Council office on 03 443 8197 or the Queenstown office on 03 441 0499.

"Either the Council customer services staff, during the daytime, or the after hours service, at night, will contact a noise control officer immediately. All complaints are anonymous," Mr Francis said.

ENDS

For further information please contact Tim Francis 03 442 4777

By: Tamah