In 2025, Gisborne residents similarly opposed a 15m tower going up outside a home<\/a>, going so far as to block work from progressing. <\/p>\nThis week, a petition was created to protest a cell tower being built on the intersection of Upland Rd and St Michael\u2019s Cres, next to St Michael\u2019s Church. <\/p>\n
One Kelburn resident who signed it called cell towers \u201cexceptionally ugly eyesores\u201d.<\/p>\n
Another signatory said the idea of erecting one next to the historical church would be \u201coffensive\u201d and an \u201cact of vandalism\u201d. <\/p>\n
Spokesman for the resident\u2019s association, John Swan, said the tower would \u201csignificantly detract\u201d from the green space next to the church that locals enjoyed gathering on. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe emphasis will go away from the church and its associated buildings, which have heritage value, and onto a filthy great tower with speed limit signs … It\u2019s offensive to the neighbourhood.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"John]()
John Swan wants the new tower be placed behind the church, on private land which already contains other cell towers (pictured).<\/p>\n
Swan acknowledged while \u201cNimbys\u201d – short for \u201cnot in my backyard\u201d – were prevalent around his community, students from Victoria University who lived in Kelburn \u201cmight not buy into \u2018visual vandalism\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n
He wanted Connexa, the mobile tower infrastructure company that partnered with Spark, to consider putting the tower next to other existing towers behind the church, where it would be less visible.<\/p>\n
These towers were built on private property owned by someone who was open to more towers being erected on their land, he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve put the propositions [to Connexa] of the damage that will be done, they listen politely and eventually say, \u2018We\u2019re entitled to do this under the law.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He also believed that, because Kelburn was served by multiple cell towers, the suburb did not suffer any cell service coverage gaps that warranted a new tower being built.<\/p>\n
![\"John]()
John Swan standing next to one of the existing cell towers behind the church.<\/p>\n
Companies say more coverage needed, site best option<\/p>\n
Growing demand on mobile networks was placing pressure on existing cell sites in parts of Wellington, Spark\u2019s corporate affairs lead Rachel Morton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEach site has a finite amount of capacity shared across the people using it at any given time, which can become constrained as usage increases, particularly at busy times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some areas needed investment to improve their limited coverage, especially those with growing communities, she said.<\/p>\n
Spark made a \u201csignificant investment\u201d each year to build and upgrade its 4G and 5G network to ensure present and future reliability.<\/p>\n
![\"Outlines]()
Outlines show where the equipment cabinet will sit on the St Michael’s Crescent footpath.<\/p>\n
Connexa\u2019s planning and engagement lead Fiona Matthews said the new Kelburn cell tower needed to be in a location where \u201ccoverage was optimised\u201d. <\/p>\n
Multiple sites were considered against technical, safety and regulatory requirements. <\/p>\n
The location next to the church was the most suitable to deliver coverage and performance improvements, she said. <\/p>\n
Matthews said Connexa had discussed the proposal for the tower with Wellington City Council and the church, and also followed the Telecommunications Forum community engagement guidelines.<\/p>\n
The council said it had issued a certificate of compliance for the tower and noted Connexa had chosen to apply for the certificate, despite it not being mandatory. <\/p>\n
![\"John]()
John Swan points towards where the cell tower will be erected, while Connexa workers mark out where the work will take place. An orange circle on the footpath indicates where the base of the tower will sit.<\/p>\n
Residents were informed of the plans via letters sent on June 29. <\/p>\n
In a second letter sent on August 6, Connexa confirmed construction of the tower would begin in late August and would take between five and seven days. <\/p>\n
The company recognised the area next to the church was \u201can important community area\u201d and said it \u201crefined the design\u201d of the tower after receiving residents\u2019 feedback. <\/p>\n
The number of cabinets would be reduced from four to two, and they would be painted a green colour to blend in with their surroundings. <\/p>\n
The existing speed sign would also be integrated on to the tower to \u201cmaximise footpath space\u201d.<\/p>\n
Swan said these changes were not enough to appease disgruntled residents, who planned to soon erect hoardings around the village that read: \u201cSpark is vandalising our village\u201d. <\/p>\n
Janhavi Gosavi is a Wellington-based journalist for the New Zealand Herald who covers news in the capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kelburn residents will soon put up hoardings to oppose the erection of a new cell tower, with this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[674,3033,39195,12897,103477,152644,71,21081,3242,142583,111,43,139,1536,69,46611,25394,42675,530,17294,8229,61,3159,73886,26995,52,5977],"class_list":["post-568073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-building","tag-cell","tag-centuryold","tag-church","tag-erection","tag-exceptionally","tag-from","tag-historical","tag-large","tag-leafy","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-offensive","tag-protest","tag-protesting","tag-residents","tag-suburb","tag-they","tag-to","tag-tower","tag-ugly","tag-vandalism","tag-wellington","tag-which"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}