New bid to get site for radio mast

Press, 24 February 1978, Page 3

New bid to get site for radio mast

The Canterbury Broadcasting Company, Ltd, has applied to build a transmitter on a property in Hawkins Road. There were 16 objections when the application went before the Waimairi County Council town planning committee yesterday, seeking a specified departure.

The area would be less than the size of a tennis court said the director of the C.B.C. (Mr R. D. McKay). A building housing an emergency studio would occuoy 400 sq ft. Most objectors were worried about interference with electrical appliances, especially radios, stereos and television sets. To this, the company’s solicitor (Mr N. G. Hattaway) said that the C.B.C. would correct any cause of interference that was traced by Post Office technicians to the company. “I am advised by the senior radio inspector at the Post Office that the selected frequency and power of the proposed station should cause no interference to; radio reception of other stations by local residents,” Mr McKay said. The mast would not be unduly obstructive, said Mr Hattaway. It would be slender, would not block sunlight, and would not be painted or lit.

The Regional Planning Authority in a submission, said that the area had a high market gardening potential. Mr McKay said to this that only ground covered by the concrete plinth of the mast, and the building, could not be farmed. He said that the company had chosen that site because of the high soil conductivity there.

The proposed site was on property owned by an objector to a similar application made last year by the company on an adjoining piece of land. The application was declined by the Waimairi County Council on the grounds of “visual pollution.” No objectors to that application had lodged an objection to the present application, a council official told the committee. “The main point at issue is to determine whether the new site is far enough from previous objectors to overthrow the aesthetic grounds for objection that persuaded the council to decline the previous application,” said the county planner (Mr D. Hinman).