Church pulls out of cell tower plan
FOLLOWING a public outcry, the Dias Dutch Reformed Church has “withdrawn from the process” of a proposal to erect a cell tower on its property in Broadway, Forest Downs, as well as three other sites around Ndlambe.
When neighbouring residents heard of the proposal by Atlas Towers they raised objections to the municipality and in the Ward 10 committee.
Talk of the Town reported on the objections in our May 18 edition, the same day three notices appeared in the paper advertising proposals to erect towers on land owned by the NGK in Boknes, Nkwenkwezi and Port Alfred.
The one in Boknes was to be 15m high and the ones in Nkwenkwezi and Port Alfred 25m high.
BJB Project Services was appointed to produce the application and conduct the process calling for public comment.
A week later, after becoming aware of growing opposition to the towers and a planned silent protest at the Dias NGK in Broadway, the church management committee held a special meeting to discuss the matter.
Dominee Wikus Venter sent a letter to one of the objectors, Dawie van Wyk of the Port Alfred Residents and Ratepayers Association (Parra), in which he explained the church had decided to “withdraw from the process of possible erection of cellphone towers in Nemato, Port Alfred, Bushman’s River as well as Boknes”.
“Initially, we as a church were very excited about the possibilities these towers could have meant to the community,” Venter wrote. He stressed that all income which would have been generated by the towers would have been put back in the community.
He said the church was unhappy to learn of the protest planned to take place during their Sunday morning church service, and hoped the organisers would call it off.
Despite the letter, the protest went ahead as planned on Sunday. It was peaceful, with about 20 residents holding up placards voicing their objections based on health concerns over electromagnetic radiation and the impact of the towers on property values.
Among the signs were statements like “Love thy neighbour” and “Shame on you dominee!”
Three church members came outside to tell the protesters the plan to erect the towers was off, and one berated the protesters for being “un-Christian” and looking silly.
Protesters responded that there was no official notice withdrawing the application.
Van Wyk said: “There is no letter confirming this and they still have a signed agreement with Atlas Towers which they will now have to extricate themselves from.
“It also appears that BJB Projects – who were mandated by the NG Church to process all the departure applications – and Atlas are now looking for alternative sites, so we will have to monitor this carefully and make sure that alternate sites meet with our approval and are not placed in or near residential areas.
“There is a petition currently being circulated to this effect.”