About 30 residents gathered last week to protest a cell tower being built outside a residential property on Seymour Rd in Gisborne. Photo / James Pocock
Residents of a Gisborne street protesting a 15-metre cell tower going up outside a home have blocked work from progressing more than once since it began.
They say they are frustrated the district council and company did not consult with them, and some believe the tower could have health impacts.
The company setting up the tower says cell sites in residential areas were necessary to meet the level of demand, the site was compliant with regulations and they were doing what they could to ensure a safe work zone.
Mobile tower infrastructure company FortySouth Ltd was granted resource consent by Gisborne District Council last year to build a cell tower on the berm outside a property on Seymour Rd.
Council chief executive Nedine Thatcher Swann said no rules prohibited the installation of a cell tower in a residential zone, and no notification or consultation was required for this work.
“While we do recommend applicants undertake consultation, the RMA [Resource Management Act] does not specifically require applicants to consult,” Swann said in a statement.
The activity was “permitted” under the District Plan rules, but was a “controlled” activity under the National Environmental Standard for Telecommunication Facilities.
“Controlled activities are ones which we are required to grant.”
Thatcher Swann said limited notification was considered, but the planner’s assessment determined that potential effects were less than minor, so notification to specific individuals was not necessary.
The Gisborne Herald approached the owner of the property outside of which the cell tower will be erected. He declined to comment.
Speaking at a protest at the site last month, resident Huti Watson said she and about 70 other residents in the area had signed a petition to the council against the cell tower in support of affected residents.
“One morning I was out of town and I came back and [the resident] called and he was here with another older gentleman and he was lying down on the [concrete] platform,” Watson told the Gisborne Herald.
“I looked at that and I thought that it’s terrible that he has to go to that extent to protect his property and his home.”
Residents just wanted the tower to be relocated, she said.
“I’m not against 5G towers myself, others might be, but there is a park just over there, a great big huge park, hills over there, so I don’t get why it has to be right here.”
Watson said residents had twice deterred contractors attempting to carry out the work by standing around the barricade, and on one other occasion when a lot of contractors were present.
Another resident, Rex Williamson, said it was “completely wrong”.
“There was no communication beforehand, even though the council says there was,” Williamson said.
He believes “microwaves from these towers are destructive, especially for young people.”
Health NZ Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) notes on its website that overall, reviews of research into radiofrequency fields like those emitted by cell towers show exposures that comply with current limits and do not cause health effects.
Reviews by the Health Council of the Netherlands, the United States Food and Drug Administration, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety, the European Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks and the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency are among those cited by HNZ.
Another resident said the contractors appeared to have dealt with situations like that before and had been peaceful when dealing with residents.
Lisa Mulitalo, Fortysouth head of external affairs and stakeholder engagement, said the site on Seymour Rd was the second of three sites being built in Gisborne this year to provide the area with improved mobile connectivity, with better coverage and more capacity to meet the demand for mobile services.
“The significant investment being made in Gisborne to improve mobile services will ensure the Gisborne community has resilient mobile services in the event of emergency events and natural disasters and future-proof access to mobile technologies as they are rolled out,” Mulitalo said.
Fortysouth followed National Environmental Standards for Telecommunication Facilities 2016 (NESTF) and the local District Plan rules when selecting cell sites.
“We fully understand that people may not want the infrastructure located close to them, but demand for mobile services is growing rapidly, and to meet the demand and ensure communities have resilient mobile services we must keep pace and cell sites are being built all around the country in residential areas to meet that demand.”
Consideration when planning a cell site included district planning rules; safety standards; avoiding interference with other cell sites, multi-storey buildings and geographical terrain, such as the location of hills and trees; and ensuring there were services such as power and fibre backhaul available.
Mulitalo said Fortysouth shared plans with neighbouring properties of the Seymour Rd site, including the owner of the property next to the site, before submitting the consent application to councils and again just before construction.
“Fortysouth has a community page where residents can find out information about cell sites, including links to independent health and safety information provided by the Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation,” she said.
“Fortysouth is working with NZ Police to ensure that we have a safe work zone for both the residents and contractors in Seymour Rd.”
She said health and safety were paramount, which was why contractors stopped work earlier last month.
“We respect the right to protest, but just ask that protesters don’t create a health and safety issue for them or us and refrain from abusing our contractors, they are just doing their job.”