Editorial: Cell tower case of bad manners

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

That is the message to mobile phone company 2degrees which seems determined to push on with plans to erect a 20-metre cellphone tower right behind the main shopping centre in Taradale.

Earth works for the tower have begun on land leased by 2degrees in the carpark between Lee and Gloucester Roads, at the back of the retail area.

Taradale Shopping Centre Association had attempted to negotiate with 2degrees over the placement of the tower, or "monopole", which will protrude 15 metres above the shops, as envisioned in a mocked-up photograph published by Hawke's Bay Today yesterday.

The association had suggested three alternative sites within 150 metres of the leased site, including on top of the civil defence siren on the Taradale Fire Station site.

There is little Napier City Council can do about the situation as cellphone towers do not require consent.

There is no argument that 2degrees has the right to erect the tower, it is more a case of this being a circumstance the company should have been able to predict would leave the community feeling offside.

Similar stories have played out in other New Zealand towns. People are wary of cellphone towers for reasons including the fact that they are just plain ugly and because some are suspicions they are bad for our health.

No one is saying 2degrees is not welcome in Taradale. We like choice in the market and we rely on mobile phones (even if some of us occasionally hanker for the good old days before we had cellphones buzzing with such critical communications as "S'up Bro! B 5 L8 :)".

What is happening here, if 2degrees does indeed refuse to come back and talk to the community, is simply bad corporate manners which will leave locals feeling disgruntled.

It's not too late to fix that. :(