Letter: Surrounded by beauty – and noise!

Tony Psaila of Salt Rock writes:

As I sit in my home perched on the hill in Salt Rock I wake up and go to sleep surrounded by beauty in all directions – the sea in front of me and beautiful landscapes to left and right.

But there is something that’s causing this part of the North Coast to deteriorate – noise pollution!

I googled noise pollution and here’s what it said: Unwanted noise can damage physiological health; Noise pollution can cause hypertension, high stress levels, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), hearing loss, sleep disturbance and other harmful effects.

I am feeling a lot of these symptoms.

Almost every day of the 5 years I’ve lived here the neighbourhood alarms go off day and night.

Just this week I have been woken by my direct neighbour’s alarm at 3.43am Tuesday and 4.30am Wednesday.

At other times you have people arming and disarming their home and car alarms with audible beeps and if they forgot something they do it all over again.

I believe that alarm systems should be inaudible like in the estates. Let’s face it, alarms go off so often we don’t even look anymore.

The security companies would still get an alarm signal and at least they would have a better chance of catching thieves in the act.

So, I’m sure a lot of you can identify with this problem.

What other things can I tell you about?

Taxis constantly hooting, neighbours’ visitors hooting at the gate and then all the neighbours’ dogs start barking.

I am in the direct flight path of King Shaka airport, which handles over 27 000 planes and 21 million passengers a year.

Then there’s the sky freeway over our beach – endless planes, helicopters and microlights.

We are surrounded by it but what can be done to lessen it?

So, have a nice peaceful week.

I have to finish now, my tranquilizer pills are kicking in.