Green MP says cellsite guidelines inadequate

Vodafone, Telecom and 2degrees have agreed on the minimum steps they should take to consult communities when they are building or upgrading cellsites.

The guidelines have been criticised as "woefully inadequate" by Green MP Sue Kedgley, who says mobile network operators should sit down with community groups and councils before they identify possible sites, and agree on locations that are least intrusive.

"I can think of a couple of cases where they have been able to find a location the community can live with."

Bar any consultations they are required to carry out under council rules, the telcos have only accepted an obligation to inform people who live "immediately adjacent" to cellsites in residential areas of their intentions, along with the managers of any nearby "public facilities", such as schools.

State-owned transmission company Kordia and wireless network operator Woosh are also signatories to the guidelines, drafted by the Telecommunications Carriers Forum, an industry body.

When cellsites in residential areas are upgraded, carriers should write to people immediately adjacent to the cellsite at least 20 days before any construction begins, explaining what is being done and why, the forum says.

In the case of a new cellsite, those people should be informed before any council consents are sought, and again before construction begins.

2degrees is not a member of the forum, but spokeswoman Bryony Hilless says it helped draft the code and supports it.

It expects to build or attach its equipment to several hundred more cellsites over the next few years as it expands its coverage and reduces its reliance on roaming on Vodafone's network outside the main centres.

Ms Kedgley says she is being contacted every week and sometimes daily by "distraught communities".

The forum had carefully used the term "community engagement" rather than consultation, she says. "As far as I can see, all they are really doing is saying they will let people know a few days ahead of time that a cellphone tower is about to be constructed outside their home. This is not genuine consultation."

Ms Kedgley has called for a review of a national environmental standard approved by the previous government last year that means cellsite and wireless transmission towers less than three metres tall do not usually need resource consent.

Forum chairman Richard Westlake says there are "pretty robust" planning rules protecting communities.