NBN noise a nightmare for neighbours

Paul Bibby

As if the roll-out of the National Broadband Network hasn’t caused enough headaches in recent years, this week a number of Mullumbimby residents have had the added joy of noisy cable-laying work happening outside their homes until 3 o’clock in the morning.

Those living in and around 112 Dalley Street have been brought to their wits end by six to eight hours of cut-off saws, jack-hammers and vacuum trucks as workers dug up the footpath happening on consecutive nights over the past two weeks.

Resident Adam Rapley said he and his wife had barely slept while the work was taking place and questioned why it couldn’t have been done during the day.

‘My poor wife who’s a preschool teacher has been going off to work completely buggered – it’s horrendous,’ Mr Rapley said.

‘I work in construction and I know for a fact that I can’t use my bobcat during the middle of the night so I don’t see why they’re allowed to make this kind of noise until 3am. It’s a clear breach of construction industry regulations.

‘This job doesn’t need to be done at night. Everyone around here feels the same way. At the very least we should have been notified.’

However, a spokesperson for NBNco said the company had been advised by Byron Shire Council that the work needed to be undertaken at night.

‘Where we can’t do work during the day because of traffic and pedestrian access we are often advised by the local council to do it at night, and that was the case in this instance,’ the spokesperson said.

‘The residents were notified by letterbox drop that the work was taking place.’