LifeHouse Church cleared by council after years of noise complaints

Three years, 10 inspections, seven council officers ... and finally, a large church in Adelaide’s suburbs has been cleared after neighbours complained.

After years of noise complaints, the Port Adelaide Enfield Council has cleared LifeHouse Church in Lightsview of wrongdoing. Picture: Emma Brasier

An international church in Adelaide’s inner northeast has been cleared by council of wrongdoing after years of noise complaints against the venue.

Port Adelaide Enfield Council started investigating concerns around noise and vibrations coming from LifeHouse Church at Lightsview in 2022.

The church, which also has locations in Melbourne and the Polish city of Poznań, hosts a well-attended Sunday service where musicians take to the stage to sing about their faith – along with a church youth band on Friday evenings.

The initial complaint revolved around loud music from the youth band during late hours.

Council staff found the youth band was playing amplified music outside approved hours but a spokesperson said the religious organisation was “reminded of its permitted operating hours” and “since then there were no further complaints about operating outside of permitted operating hours”.

However, the spokesperson said council has received “ongoing complaints” from two separate residents about church noise more broadly.

Council staff investigated the complaints between 2022 and early 2023 but at the time noise from activities carried out at places of worship during approved hours did not constitute a nuisance under the Local Nuisance and Litter Control Act.

When council reached out to the Environment Protection Authority, the issue sparked a rule change.

Since April of last year, the authority determined that amplified music associated with a place of worship could now be investigated under the act.

Amid ongoing complaints, council launched another investigation which ran between October and May of this year.

Council officers have determined that the noise created by LifeHouse Church does not meet the legislative threshold to be considered local nuisance. Picture: Emma Brasier

Lindy Harris, from the church leadership team, said they have worked closely with council to make sure they met noise level requirements.

“We do regular sound checks,” she said.

Ms Harris added that since the church was built in 2002, houses have been developed around it and “we’re aware of that as well”.

A neighbour, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said youth nights at the church “used to be really wild” and noisy a few years ago but the issue has since been resolved.

A council spokesperson said authorised officers spent more than 13 hours onsite inspecting the situation between October and May in addition to “many other hours of work”, which included evidence gathering and reviewing information.

The investigation involved ten inspections undertaken by seven officers between October in 2024 and May 2025, who last month concluded that “local nuisance is not occurring”.

“In this situation, whilst the residents may hear the noise from the church, the authorised officers do not believe the noise they have observed was unreasonable,” council documents stated.

“Authorised officers have determined that the noise created by LifeHouse Church does not meet the legislative threshold to be considered local nuisance and therefore have closed the complaint.”

A spokesperson said “investigations of this nature” formed part of council’s standard response to noise complaints.

Originally published as LifeHouse Church cleared by council after years of noise complaints