Norwood, Payneham & St Peters Council votes to keep Felixstow Reserve basketball court

The “bang, bang, bang” of a suburban basketball court has been described as “torture” during a heated meeting – with one councillor comparing the noise to Nazi experiments.

A move to relocate a Felixstow Reserve basketball court causing “unnecessary distress” for the neighbours with late night bouncing balls has failed to win support by the local council.

Instead, Norwood, Payneham & St Peters elected members voted 7 to 5 on Monday night to install CCTV cameras at the reserve and further consult with the community.

It comes after 39 residents signed a petition calling on the court’s removal over noise complaints with games breaching an 8pm to 8am curfew.

During a heating meeting on Monday, Cr John Minney said he was “extremely upset” the council did not agree with his proposal to move the court.

The council has set a strict curfew at the court. Picture: Ben Cameron.

He said it had “made a mistake” by building the facilities in the wrong spot, there was a lack of consultation before it was built and residents had been “driven mad” by noise.

“It is not an easy place to live,” Cr Minney said.

“(The users) are not prepared to obey the rules, not prepared to live in harmony with the rest of the community.

“It is actually torture … if you’re sitting there late at night and you’ve got this bang, bang, bang.

“It’s a great way to drive people nuts, and indeed it has.

“We actually destroyed their living environment (by installing the court). This is not going away, it’s going to get worse. CCTV is useless.”

The court was opened in February, 2019. Picture: Ben Cameron

Cr Minney also said the council did not have the resources to tackle the “behavioural problems” of some users.

“We are not a police force. Unless you’ve got a gang, an army behind you … you get absolutely nowhere,” he said.

Cr Garry Knoblauch said there was activity as early as 6.20am and as late as 11.30pm with groups of up to 12 with four balls at a time.

Cr Evonne Moore said she wanted to avoid an “endless loop of consultation” and Cr Minney’s failed plan was “cutting through a lot of crap”.

“Noise is very intimately connected with mental health, the Nazis did experiments on people to find out how long it would take a woman to strangle her own baby for crying continuously,” Cr Moore said.

However, Cr Scott Sims said moving the court would effectively “screw the rest of the community” who wanted it.

Reserve user Melva wants the court to stay where it is. Picture: Ben Cameron.

“You don’t just rip out a major component without doing further research and talking to the community,” Cr Sims said.

Cr Christel Mex said moving the court would be “premature” while Cr Carlo Dottore believed it was in the right place despite users “flouting the rules”.

“Most people live with it, obviously we’ve got some people who are hypersensitive to the issue and keep complaining,” Cr Dottore said.

Cr Kester Moorhouse said after visiting the court it was “hard to feel … this was some demonic, terrible thing going on”.

“Most of the people down there have been doing the right thing,” Cr Moorhouse said.