The Vipassana meditation retreat north of Auckland has concerns that a new pistol range being built nearby will disrupt the peace and tranquility of the area.

A shooting club battling its neighbours has been forced to stop building firing ranges.

The shooting club owners have recently been served with abatement notices for earthworks on their two properties in Makarau, northwest of the city.

Auckland Shooting Club opened in mid 2017 and has been mired in resistance and legal action from a nearby meditation centre and a local community group formed to oppose it.

The groups were upset at the noise of gunfire, and concerned at the club's plans to expanded.

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Land owners Raymond O'Brien and his wife Victoria Pichler are New Zealand representative shooters.

LAWRENCE SMITH/STUFF New Zealand representative shooter Raymond O'Brien.

The pair was spending their life savings to build a facility that would outlast them, O'Brien said.

"The idea is that it will be a centre of excellence," he said.

"It will provide a facility that people can train at, that we can conduct competitions and world championships at."

LAWRENCE SMITH/STUFF Kirsty McKay of the Vipassana meditation centre, says she is concerned at the threat to its peaceful environment.

Auckland Council issued the first abatement notice to O'Brien and Pichler on November 8 to force them to immediately halt building up to 13 firing ranges as well as car parking at the club, until they obtained resource consent.

A second notice was issued to them on January 18 to stop construction of ranges on adjacent land, with the council saying it believed those ranges would be used by the gun club, without resource consent.

Private shooting was a permitted activity in the rural production zone.

O'Brien said the earthworks on the adjacent land were for different projects, each under an allowed 1000 square metres in size, but council enforcement officer David Firth said they all added up to exceed the limit.

There was also the potential for sediment from the earthworks to enter waterways, which could affect fish habitats, Firth said in the notice.

The gun club was in the process of applying to Auckland Council for land use consent.

O'Brien said the council was being overly careful due to the pressure and history of legal action by the club's neighbours.

The gun club has a certificate of compliance for its four current shooting ranges, a small parking area and a toilet block. It has 450 members who use it to practice with pistols, shotguns and rifles.

Dhamma Medini Vipassana Meditation Centre spokeswoman Kirsty McKay said gunshots from the range could be heard at the centre most days.

McKay said the noise had been quieter recently – perhaps to avoid provoking neighbours while consents were applied for – although some loud shots were still fired.

"Last year the shots were very loud and very disturbing to our students, and to neighbours up to five kilometres away," she said.

"We have had students asking for earplugs, wanting to leave because of their PTSD being triggered, and complaining of difficulties concentrating, as the sound of gunshot automatically triggers the nervous system and distracts the mind, unlike the sound of birds, rain and wind, which don't cause any alarm."

LEGAL ACTION UNDERWAY

On the request of the vipassana centre and the Keep the Peace Makarau Valley group, the Environment Court on January 24 ordered documents with information about the earthworks be handed over.

The two groups had also earlier gone to the High Court last year to challenge the club's certificate of compliance.

Justice Christian Whata, in his decision, referred the certificate back to the council, which proceeded to revoke it due to lead contamination concern.

The certificate was reissued though by independent commissioners on appeal.

The shooting club's opponents have now filed for a judicial review of that decision and the meditation centre has also filed in the Court of Appeal against the High Court ruling.