Wellington may restrict cellphone towers

By DAVE BURGESS - The Dominion Post| Wednesday, 26 November 2008

Public anger over a proliferation of cellphone towers and broadband cabinets has prompted Wellington City Council to look at tightening controls on communication companies.

Council planners have received applications covering more than 170 sites from telecommunication companies this year.
They include more than 100 roadside cabinets, each the size of a large fridge, to be installed in Wellington as part of Telecom’s "cabinetisation" programme for faster broadband.
Also included are 70 applications from NZ Communications, which is establishing a national mobile network.
Complaints from residents and business owners over the proliferation of towers and cabinets prompted Mayor Kerry Prendergast to seek a review of the council’s district plan rules.



The rules allow almost all telecommunication installations on council-owned reserve land, and on land next to roads, to proceed unhindered.
Ms Prendergast said the recent installation of two separate towers by Vodafone and NZ Communications in Churton Park had angered residents and sparked the review.
"Residents are annoyed that the telecommunications companies are siting new infrastructure on reserve land, or on a roadside, and the council can’t stop them doing so."
She said people were especially concerned at the height of some cellphone towers, and an apparent reluctance of companies to share the same tower for their equipment.

"Telecommunications equipment is essential to our collective welfare and to keeping Wellington an internationally competitive capital city.
"However, the installation of this infrastructure should be balanced against the wishes of residents not to have their views, and enjoyment of life, compromised."
Churton Park resident Malcolm Weight said there was concern in the community about the visual impact of the towers, and whether prolonged exposure to tower emissions could make people ill.
"What I think should change is that these companies should have to apply for resource consent in the usual way so people can send in submissions and voice their concerns to the council."

The review would include an investigation into how the council could effectively use the new National Environmental Standards, introduced by the Government last month.
Though the standards set limits on the height and size of telecommunication masts and antennas and cabinets, , council officers are uncertain how to police them.
Telecom spokesman Ian Bonnar said the telecommunications company had always worked in line with national guidelines and local council district plans.

"Generally the National Environmental Standards provide technical specifications for the infrastructure, and it is the district plan that determines the location." He said Telecom would discuss the planned rule changes if invited by the council.

Erection of cell towers angers residents

Charlie Gates - Canterbury | Thursday, 20 November 2008

Erection of cell towers angers residents

A new cellphone network being built across New Zealand could see nearly 100 new cell towers erected in Christchurch, raising the hackles of residents.



New company NZ Communications has approval for cell towers on 82 sites across Christchurch and another 15 sites are in the pipeline.
It has already started building cell towers in Christchurch.
However, it would not reveal how many would be erected in the city, saying the information was "commercially sensitive".
Planning laws allow the 20m towers to be built as of right in most locations, provided they are more than 20m from a home in a living zone.
Construction started on one of the towers on Hawke Street, New Brighton, this week, upsetting resident Graham Clark.
He said he first heard the cell tower would be erected near his home when surveyors arrived on the scene.
"I am pretty angry and pretty annoyed. It is not about me, it is about the aesthetics for the whole community. It is concerning for the rest of the community. What will pop up on our doorstep next? They could have found a better site for it," he said.
Other residents have complained to local councillors about the new towers.
NZ Communications has agreed to rent about 12 sites owned by the Christchurch council for new cell towers and is negotiating for more sites in the city, but most of the cell towers are planned for private land.
The company will pay the council about $8000 a year in rent for each cell-tower site on its land, in line with similar deals the council has struck with Telecom, Vodafone and Woosh.
NZ Communications had filed over 300 applications for cell sites with eight councils in Christchurch, Auckland and Wellington by April this year, and had signed an equipment-supply contract for 1300 cell-tower sites.
Council property and leasing adviser Bill Hughes estimated there were 100 cell towers already built in Christchurch for rival cellphone networks.
Hughes said the council had guidelines to ensure cell towers were built away from residential areas.



"The council is pretty careful on where these go, but they have to go somewhere because everybody has a cellphone in their back pocket," Hughes said.
"The process seems to work well and we have the minimum of complaints.
"In most cases the cell towers are away from residential areas and we tend to place these poles in suitable places like near fast-moving highways.
"I expect more applications because they (NZ Communications) need to complete their network and the council has undertaken to assist them in locating suitable sites for cell towers."
A council spokeswoman said not every application would result in a cell tower being built, but were potential sites for the company.
NZ Communications chief executive officer Mike Reynolds said the new network would create more competition in New Zealand.



"New Zealanders currently pay some of the highest mobile calling rates in the developed world. We believe this is largely due to a lack of competition. We are building a third GSM mobile-phone network for New Zealand so that Kiwis will have real choice and true competition in the mobile-phone market," he said.

Council wants to keep Waimauku rural

By CARALISE MOORE - Rodney Times| Wednesday, 12 November 200

Waimauku will retain its rural village character through the Waimauku Structure Plan, the Rodney District Council says.

Three open days are planned at the new Waimauku shopping centre between Stationery World and Red Crayon during the next fortnight for people to get further information and ask questions.

The council is seeking public feedback on its recently released draft plan, with a push for slow growth in the area for the next 20 years.
"A key aim is to preserve Waimauku’s rural village character, which local residents have said they like about the town," council district planning manager Peter Vari says.
"It is clear that there is going to be some growth in Waimauku, but residents have indicated through the consultation process that they want any development to occur gradually."

Mr Vari says this slow growth will enable the council to control where development occurs, so the village atmosphere can be retained.
It will also allow the council to concentrate major infrastructure provision in growth areas such as Kumeu and Huapai.
The Waimauku Station Rd area is possibly a site for shops and office activities over the longer term, the plan says.
Connection to a public wastewater system is proposed in 10 years.
"Once this has occurred, the plan proposes that there be limited residential expansion around southeast and southwest Waimauku, and also some infill housing," says Mr Vari.
"Development around the Renall’s Hill and cellphone tower hill areas will be restricted and the rural areas surrounding Waimauku will be maintained to separate it from the neighbouring towns of Kumeu, Huapai, Muriwai and Woodhill."
A project newsletter with information about the structure plan is being distributed, with copies available from the council’s website.
The open days are on Wednesday, November 12, noon to 6pm, Saturday, November 15, 10am to 2pm, and Tuesday, November 18, 4pm to 8pm.
"People can drop in and visit during the open days and council staff will be on hand to answer any questions about the plan," Mr Vari says.
The New Zealand Transport Agency will also be consulting residents at the same venue and time on Wednesday and Saturday on the State Highway 16 Muriwai Rd intersection upgrade.
Public consultation on the structure plan closes on December 12, with hearings expected early next year.

A copy of the plan can be downloaded from the council website, www.rodney.govt.nz or obtained from the council by phoning 0800-426-5169.

Residents ’shafted’ by cellphone antennas

Angry Mangere Bridge residents have attacked the Manukau City Council for allowing six cellphone antennas on top of a community centre in a residential heritage zone.

Source: Sunday Star Times

By KAREN MANGNALL - Manukau Courier | Saturday, 08 November 2008

Neighbours want the council to rescind its consent for Telecom to put the antennas on top of the Auckland Chinese Community Centre in Taylor Rd.
They believe the antennas breach district plan protections for the local residential heritage zone and the community centre’s original building permit.
A council spokeswoman says Telecom was granted a non-notified resource consent for the cellphone antennas last December.
Putting them on that building is a "permitted activity" because their overall height doesn’t breach the limits set for that zone, she says.
But Daniel Lovatt says neighbours are worried about the health effects, especially on their children, and are upset no one knew about the antennas until work started a fortnight ago.
They feel "shafted" by the community centre, he says, and outraged the antennas have been put up on the very site where an earlier Vodafone bid to install a cellphone tower was stopped by public opposition.
"How could the Manukau City Council issue a consent stating that no party was considered affected by the proposal after the enormous public outcry a few years previously?"
More than 20 residents asked the Mangere Community Board on Monday to try to get work on the antennas suspended and the resource consent reviewed.
Councillor Hugh Graham says he and board member Les Dixon want to hold an urgent meeting with residents, council staff, Telecom and the community centre to "get an outcome suitable to everybody".
Resident Carol-Anne Armitage says neighbours believe the community centre is breaching its original building permit by allowing the antennas.
The 1974 permit included an agreement that the hall "be operated in a manner which will not result in any form of deterioration from the amenities of the neighbours".
Consent for the antennas also breaches the district plan objective of protecting heritage and visual values from adverse effects of network utility services, she says.
"The site is on the lower slopes of Mangere Mountain and clearly visible from the top of the mountain."
The residents say the antennas could adversely affect Tourism Manukau’s plans for guided tours to the top of the mountain and are inappropriate for a residential heritage zone.
Mr Lovatt says the community centre must have been "fully aware of the outcry of the community" over Vodafone’s earlier attempt to put up a cellphone tower on their property.
"Despite this we have not been advised of this installation," he says.
It’s a close neighbourhood and residents would have expected the centre to "show some courtesy by advising us of what was happening".
Board chairman Peter Skelton says the antenna case "hasn’t been done properly" by the council, Telecom or the landowners regardless of the legalities.
From now on the board should be advised immediately by council officers of any cellphone tower application for their ward.
"We’re the last people to find out about this sort of thing. There needs to be a change in the way council officers do this even though they’re sticking to the law."
Deputy chairman Ken Taylor wants the council to put all cellphone tower applications out for public consultation even if the law says it doesn’t have to do so.
"Whether it’s a permitted activity or not, it affects the community."
Recent law changes meant the Vodafone application was a restricted activity up for public consultation but just a couple of years later the Telecom antennas are a non-notifiable permitted activity, he says.
That’s put councillors and community boards "between the rock and the hard place" in dealing with residents’ concerns.
"The problem is we have no teeth."
In this case Telecom has "done everything right" by law, Mr Taylor says, and so has the community centre unless allowing the antennas is shown to breach their original building consent.
The board wants council officers to report to its December meeting after none turned up to Monday’s meeting to answer its questions.
Telecom says it wasn’t aware of the previous outcry over the Vodafone tower.
The Manukau Courier has been unable to contact community centre president Arthur Loo.

Technorati Tags: Media content, Angry Mangere Bridge residents have attacked the Manukau City Council for allowing six cellphone antennas on top of a community centre in a residential heritage zone.

Island Life 1 Nov 08 - Stu Reuben on Cell Phone Towers

From waihekeradio

Surfdale residents are upset about proposals to erect a cell phone transmitter in their midst. Campaigner Stu Reuben says the issue is much wider. He argues that people right across NZ have been denied information and the opportunity to have a say on where cell phone transmitters are sited.
Island Life 1 Nov 08 Cell Phone Transmitters.mp3