2degrees misses the mark again

BY: MATT BOWEN

Once again 2degrees is on the wrong side of residents.

This time it's the proposal to put a 21-metre mast on the northern side of Musick Pt on the edge of a well-used field among pohutukawa trees.

A more suitable site would be on the southern side alongside two radio transmitters and a 125 metre cliff, says Musick Point Trust chairwoman Shirley Warren.

"I don’t mind it being here as long as they put it in the right place," she says.

"We want common sense. And common sense tells us to put them all together."

The site would provide coverage for Glendowie, the golf course and the Hauraki Gulf.

If the application is rejected the telco says more sites in residential areas, across the channel, will be required.

Provision is also made in the application for two microwave dishes, up to four cabinets and a combiner cabinet.

Mrs Warren says Telecom, who leases the land off the Crown, offered to house cabinets in the historic art-deco building but 2degrees decided against it.

"There are two spots for the facility – in one you can spoil a magnificent bit of park and the other bit is already spoilt with towers and it’s too dangerous for kids to play.

"It’s a bog in here in winter. If anything went wrong with their cabinets getting a vehicle in here would be a problem and they’d want a road," she
says.

"It would spoil the whole ambience of the place."

The development could potentially have an adverse impact on a waahi tapu site, the Musick Pt Pa headland and the heritage building.

2degrees says it consulted Ngai Tai Umupuia, the area’s mana whenua, who are happy with the proposed site.

Submissions on the resource consent application closed yesterday.

"Imagine a cell tower going up here," Mrs Warren says.

"People in the future will say: ‘Why did they let them put it here among the pohutu-
kawas’?".

"The answer might have to be that we couldn’t stop it."

But Mrs Warren says many people have put in submissions and "we’re going to do our best to move it."

- © Fairfax NZ News