Keysborough businessman Jeff Bemrose with the noise abatement notice he plans to contest in court.By Shaun Inguanzo
A KEYSBOROUGH businessman will start dobbing residents in for local laws breaches in protest of a council notice ordering him to reduce his noise levels.
Cambria Road business owner Jeff Bemrose this week questioned Greater Dandenong council’s commitment to local business.
Several weeks ago Mr Bemrose was issued with a council notice ordering him to soundproof his industrial shed after residents in abutting properties complained that too much noise was coming from his business.
Star visited the Cambria Road site and observed that homes and abutting industrial buildings are in some cases less than 10 metres apart.
Mr Bemrose said his business was in an industrial zone and serviced and maintained equipment for the construction industry.
He said there was no reason why anyone would complain because any noise coming from the workshop would be during business hours and not at night.
Mr Bemrose said his investment in the Cambria Road site meant he could not afford to comply with the council order.
“I’ve spent over $500,000 on this business,” he said.
“And I can’t afford to soundproof this workshop.”
But he said he should not be made to soundproof his workshop on principle because, like other Cambria Road properties, he was carrying out ‘gainful duties’ on industrially zoned land.
“I would be asking the City of Greater Dandenong do you want employment or would you rather try and shut businesses down?” he said.
Mr Bemrose said he would fight the noise abatement notice in court and begin dobbing in residents for local laws breaches.
“If people are going to start looking over my fence and seeing what I am doing then I will start looking over their fence and see what they are doing in relation to the local laws,” he said.
City of Greater Dandenong development services director Mal Baker refused to answer how the council measured the noise levels, and what constituted acceptable noise from an industrial zone.
Mr Baker said the council was “simply asking the owner-occupier of the property from which the noise emanates to take steps to reduce the escape of noise to an acceptable level”.
“This request has been made in the form of a Nuisance Abatement Notice under the provisions of the Health and Safety Act 1958,” he said.
“Noise problems such as this do arise from time to time on older subdivisions.
“If the adjoining owners cannot resolve a satisfactory outcome it can lead to a complaint such as this where a formal requirement to abate the nuisance is made.”
Residents of the abutting Festival Crescent told Star last November that noise from the industrial factories was like “hell on earth”.
Last month Keysborough Ward councillor Roz Blades pressured council officers to intervene by bringing a recording of industrial works into the council chamber.
