Building operations

CBBRA regularly gets calls from residents complaining about the behaviour of property owners and their building contractors who seem to totally ignore the inconveniences they cause to adjacent neighbours by working well into the night, littering pavements with rubbish and executing very intrusive excavating operations, including blasting, causing wall cracks, building without passed plans or not in accordance with passed plans, etc.

CBRRA often gets complaints about all the above with the request that CBRRA do something about them – immediately. Bearing in mind that these problems are endemic and widespread, CBRRA cannot be expected to act as the trouble shooter for all of them. It just doesn’t have the manpower and, in any event, should not be doing this kind of thing in the first instance..

The correct procedure is for residents to first contact the relevant department at the Council to try and obtain help and satisfaction. Only if this is not readily forthcoming, should they then contact CBRRA which can then strengthen their representations to Council officials with a follow up.

Generally you will get most of these problems sorted out by Roads and Drainage, Cleansing and the Building Inspector (before 10-00 am) at 021 4001111 (the Council’s central swithboard).

It is worth noting that a blasting permit is required before any such operation can commence. Similarly a permit is also needed before demolitions can commence. This also ensures that buildings older than sixty years of architectural, historic or aesthetic merit are not pulled down, thus depriving the area of its built environment heritage.