Outcry over cellphone tower at school
CHATSWORTH residents are putting up a battle against an international cellphone tower company that has put up a tower on a local school property.
The tower, they said, would impact on their health and that of the school pupils, and would also lead to a decrease in their property values.
Championing the fight is community activist Dinesh Chetty, who is calling on residents to sign opposing papers as part of the court application to bring down the tower.
“Sometime last year there was a notice sent around the community of a tower to be built at the Alencon Primary School in Woodhurst. We put in our objections to appeal the construction. Many residents did not even know the tower was going to constructed and many people were not educated on how such a tower would impact on their health,” said Chetty.
The tower was being built by Atlas Towers, he said.
However, a short while later, residents saw construction go ahead, and became irate as they had not heard from the eThekwini Municipality regarding their appeal.
“The tower went up in September 2016, and we were very concerned about this. We contacted the municipality and they said that while permission to build was granted to Atlas Towers, it was only on condition that an appeals process was held. We had to pay R1000 for an appeals date to be set as to why we did not want the tower in our community, meanwhile the tower went up,” he said.
Alarmingly, said Chetty, the tower was “activated” earlier this year, and the community, together with their legal team launched an urgent high court application last week to have the tower “switched off ” pending the outcome of the appeals process by the municipality.
“We have yet to set the date to hear the matter, as there are some outstanding documents from some of the respondents listed in the application. In the meantime the municipality said they need time to set up and train an appeals committee,” said Chetty.
Now Atlas Towers wants to know who the community of Woodhurst is, and Chetty is urging residents to contact him if they would like to add their names to the court application. More than a dozen residents have signed the court papers.
“Residents can contact me on 031 403 4444. We need the community to stand together,” he said.
The Independent on Saturday sent a list of detailed questions to the eThekwini Municipality for comment and the state of the appeals process, and its response was: “The city cannot comment on a matter that is before the court.” No response was received from the education department. Atlas Towers legal expert Henco Pretorius did not respond to queries.