All that Tunapuna residents want for Christmas is to have silent nights. These are residents living near a bar that plays loud music into the wee hours of the morning. They dream of silent nights for the rest of the season and into the new year.Carlos Foster, 67, said for more than two years residents have been subjected to unrelenting loud music emanating from the Aquarios Club at 188 Eastern Main Road, Tunapuna.
He said the indiscriminate playing of music at excessive volume when the venue was rented out to hold parties–lasting from 11 pm to 6 am and beyond–had caused several elderly residents' deaths due to stress.Foster said, "I've personally made several reports at the Tunapuna Police Station. They take the report and pass it on. Although they have responded, all they say they can do is reduce the noise level or tell us the music wasn't too hard when they were passing. How did the club know when the police would pass?"
He said some residents said when the police left, the club DJ turned back up the volume full blast.Foster said things came to a head when over 200 residents signed a petition to take to the EMA (Environmental Management Authority) concerning Aquarios Club in an effort to revoke its liquor licence, such as loud music, litter, patrons urinating on neighbours' walls, cars blocking neighbours' driveways, revving engines, blowing horns, fighting and anti-social behaviour.
The EMA's Environmental Police Unit (EPU) visited the club to take sound pressure level (SPL) readings on several occasions, but as soon as they left, the volume was turned back up.He said in tandem with the EMA report, he initiated court action against the club in October last year, and the court referred the matter to the mediation centre in Tunapuna.
Foster said the club's owner, Rishi Hardit Singh, agreed to make changes to soundproof the premises and reduce the volume and duration of the music; however, it did not matter to whom the club was leased, as the acoustic assault continued.
Foster said the music was so loud with the DJ screaming at the top of his lungs that it rattled windows and made beds shake, parents couldn't put back their young children to sleep, students couldn't study, seniors in their 80s and 90s could not be comfortable, toddlers and expectant mothers' sleep was affected, and the sick could not recuperate in peace.A summons was served on Hardit Singh and he is to appear before a Tunapuna magistrate in February 2014 to report on whether he has done soundproofing measures.
When the Sunday Guardian contacted Hardit Singh by telephone, he said a proposal was carried to the judge to build a soundproofing wall, change the music system and re-position the speakers to mitigate the noise.Singh said he and the tenant to whom he rented the club, Ricardo Diaz, were trying to resolve the issue with the residents and the judge gave them until February to comply. However, he said, it would take time to build sound-dampening structures, noise screens and wooden fencing.
He said the tenant was working with the residents and the EMA was monitoring the sound levels from the club.Diaz did not return the Sunday Guardian's calls.