Porirua cellphone tower sites named

The sites of five more Telecom cellphone towers approved by Porirua City Council have been revealed by a disgruntled councillor.

Construction of a tower at the Tireti Rd telephone exchange in Titahi Bay – within 20 metres of houses – was halted after local protest.

The five other towers will be built next to the Freedom Church in Cannons Creek, at 1 Broken Hill Rd, in Kenepuru Drive near Wall Place, next to the Waitangirua police station in Warspite Ave, and on Colonial Knob – a hill west of Porirua City.

Porirua city councillor Robert Shaw said it was unacceptable that Telecom had belatedly consulted Titahi Bay residents but kept the other locations to itself.

"This puts stress and tension into the community. It creates a landscape nobody wants."

At an open day held by Telecom- owned infrastructure company Chorus in Titahi Bay last week, its chief executive Mark Ratcliffe said the towers were among 300 being built throughout New Zealand to "fill gaps in the network". He refused to say where the other Porirua towers would be.

Mr Shaw said local councils, including his own, should protect residents from cellphone towers by changing the rules in their district plans.

Telecom has applied for resource consent for two more towers. One is to be built in the hills above Rawhiti Rd, Pukerua Bay. The other is already at the corner of Moonshine Rd and State Highway 58, and is to be upgraded.

Nelson environmental lawyer and scientist Sue Grey founded residents' group Ban the Tower after Telecom tried to build one next to a local playcentre.

She said Telecom had agreed to stop work till the middle of next year and, as in Titahi Bay last week, had wheeled out David Black to tell people "this is not radiation, this is safe".

She said Dr Black's claim that cellphone towers emitted safe levels of radio frequencies rather than electromagnetic fields was wrong.

"He's the only expert in the world who thinks that. It is completely contrary to the latest international research."

It was now believed there was a "latent period" of 10 to 20 years after exposure before symptoms appeared, she said.

". . . short-term studies didn't show any effects but now increasing numbers of tumours are showing up."

- © Fairfax NZ News