CHARLIE Smith was in his Orange home on Saturday night minding his own business, when he decided to go to bed around 9.30pm.
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Despite his best efforts the elderly man could not sleep, such was the noise coming from a party two doors down from his home.
At 9.30pm he called the police and reported the noise.
He did again an hour later and once more after 11pm.
Based on his own observations he did not see any police attend the party to advise party-goers to keep noise levels down.
When he asked for an explanation, he alleges police told him they didn’t have the time or personnel to act on his call.
“The noise was that great that I rang the police, they said they would come but apparently there were worse things on their agenda,” he said.
“I rang once more and the officer said they still couldn’t get there. At 11.10pm I rang again and he said there’s only five police there, I think that’s disgraceful.
“How is that enough to look after 40,000 people?
“He [the police officer] said to take it up with my local member so that’s what I’m going to do.”
Canobolas Local Area Comand Inspector Linda Bradbury said on Monday police attended a party on Saturday night, but when they arrived there was no noise and the party had ceased.
“Being a Saturday night it’s one of our busier nights,” she said.
“There were jobs that would have taken priority over a noise complaint. We would have attended for sure, but if someone is at risk of injury that will take priority.”
As for the number of police rostered to work on Saturday night, Inspector Bradbury said the command had a first response agreement with the community that they adhered to, regarding the minimum number of police on duty at any one time.