'Major disturbance': Yew Tee resident wants pickleball games at night to stop, but town council says they're allowed until 10pm

The noise they make can be quite annoying.

A Yew Tee resident has been trying to get the town council to put a stop to noisy pickleball games at night near Block 636A Choa Chu Kang North 6 for months, but they are still going on.

Stomp contributor Roland has been writing to the Marsiling-Yew Tee Town Council (MYTTC) about it since July 7.

In the first email, he wrote: "Pickleball is a noisy game due to the hard plastic balls and the hollow construction of most pickleball paddles. When the ball is hit, it produces a loud popping sound that can be heard from a distance. Additionally, when the ball hits the court surface, it can produce a loud thud.

"The hard court location is very bad design and a grave mistake by HDB planners as the noise arising from hard court travel and is bounced back by the surrounding apartment blocks. Yet MYTTC allows such noisy activities during nighttime."

The town council replied to the Stomp contributor: "Please kindly be informed that the court is open to the public for multi-purpose games and the lights at the court are set to turn off at 10pm as per HDB guidelines.

"For your feedback on the noise issue, we will be deploying our enforcement team to conduct nightly inspections to monitor the noise level and advise the group of people as necessary."

HDB guidelines state: "Noise from common space and amenities such as playgrounds, pavilions, void decks, basketball and badminton courts is handled by town councils. Activities that will likely create noise nuisance cannot be carried out after 10.30pm."

So the town council is actually stopping the pickleball games half an hour before the required time.

Undeterred, the Stomp contributor wrote to MYTTC a few more times on July 12, 18, 19, Aug 4, 3, Sept 7 and 9.

He also complained about the pickleball players smoking too.

In one of its replies to the Stomp contributor, the town council wrote: "The players use the multi-purpose court once a week and they play their pickleball games every Thursday."

In another reply, MYTTC said: "We would like to share that we have measured the level decibel on the game is about 50dB, which is within the acceptable level in a residential precinct."

Refuting this, the Stomp contributor wrote back: "I have measured the level decibel on the game is above 60dB, contrary to your earlier measurement at 50dB.

"Thus, I think it is not within the acceptable noise level in a residential precinct, especially during nighttime."

In another email, he said: "The near-constant intrusive sounds of pickleball games, though the volume is not dangerous to human ears, still cause a major disturbance at night.

"Noise affects humans in many negative ways. It is also blamed for health problems induced by sleep disturbance as well as stress."

The resident told Stomp that he wants the cut-off time to be changed to 8pm.

Stomp has contacted MYTTC for more info.

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This article was first published in Stomp. Permission required for reproduction.