Noise complaints recorded in the Western Bay during December and the festive season are up on the same period last time round but are still below tallies of previous years.

And it seems the increase is due to mild early-December weather offering fine backdrops for celebrations before patchy rain drowned complaint numbers during the festive holiday fortnight.

File photo.

Figures released to SunLive from the Western Bay of Plenty District Council show 28 more noise complaints were made to the council during a period from December 1, 2013, to January 6, 2014, than in the same time-period last Christmas.

The council received 102 calls regarding noise, with 94 made during after-hours and eight taken during the day.

During the same period in the festive season before (2012-2013), the council received 73 calls in total regarding noise, made up of 65 after-hours calls and eight during the day.

And while the number is up, WBOPDC team leader compliance Graeme Troy says this is not a concern and he predicts the rise has been caused by a spike in people being outdoors in early-December's balmy weather.

'I don't know if there is any reason for the increase – but certainly there was a bit of an increase at the beginning of December, and I'm just wondering if this was because of fine weather, because ultimately we get seem to get more and more of these complaints when the weather is finer.

'Then is when people wind their windows down, or sit outside, [and hear noise],” says Graeme.

'Over Christmas it doesn't seem to be have been that much busier than last year. I think it's just the seasonal change in weather – we had a very mild early-December and I think that's when people got outside and had barbecues.

'In actual fact, this year and last year, we're down overall in the number of noise complaints we've had compared to previous years, so I think it comes and goes with the weather.”

Graeme says if its fine on a long weekend, people tend to make a bit more noise, 'if its raining on a long weekend, we don't seem to receive many calls – that's the difference between houses being shut up or open”.

With WBOPDC covering a large area of the Bay of Plenty region, going as far north as Waihi Beach, and right down to Otamarakau in the East, summer is traditionally the busiest time of year for noise complaints with people getting out about more often and holidaying in places they would not usually frequent during winter.

'There a lot more population at this time of year, you get all of the holiday areas filling up, particularly the Waihi Beach area and that population swells – and more people mean more callouts.”

Graeme, who says most of the noise complaints come from celebration-type events, reckons more than 90 per cent of those approached about a complaint are co-operative.

'We tell them to tone it down and if they're uncooperative we go back again and they get a notice; and following that, if they keep offending, then we get the police. Once we have the police presence we can actually do a seizure.

'But we didn't have to do a seizure over this Christmas period.”