You are missing the point, it's totally Iburst's problem if the locals aren't informed. They aren't paying attention if thats not the case. They should be more involved at community level instead of quitely dotting their i's and crossing their t's on paper and hoping for their insider to pass the green light. The community are here on this forum complaining and if I was an iburst subscriber, I would go elsewhere for the attitude you paint above. No-one was misinformed apparently, in fact no-one was informed at all. Rookie nothing, something stinks here and it's going to be assumed that something passed under the table as that's the nature of big business in SA.
Iburst will lose more subscribers over this.
As already stated, nothing sinister or underhanded in this whole process and anyone is welcome to come and look at the relevant documentation and certificates, just as iBurst made it available to myBroadband.
To re-iterate, the notification process was followed 100% and consisted of at least the following steps:
1) Owners on adjacent properties were hand-delivered notifications and also received another via registered mail. This happened in 2007. (Dorny, who now leads the residents' action, was one of those who actually received both. She never lodged an objection.)
2) Notices were put up on the site.
3) Ads were run in the local newspapers.
Anyone can then register as an objector or an interrested party and must be kept in the loop. A number of local residents did indeed register and did go through the process.
All received objections must be handled before the ROD can be issued. This was done and the ROD was issued in October 2008, nearly a year ago. Construction only started some time after that.
As to the visual appearance of the tower, the authorities always look at the visial impact and will then issue specific instructions on how to address this.
In this case, iBurst were instructed to erect the mast close to a cluster of high trees and to match the colour of the trees to make the mast blend in with the surroundings. This was done, so you'll see a green mast close to a cluster of trees. You can see this on the photos Dantex posted. (I see they've been removed, will see if I can get one and post here.)
In summary, there is a very well controlled process in getting these towers constructed and regulations on how and what to do is well controlled. Heavy penalties (millions) can be imposed if the process is not followed. So, these installations are done properly and according to the relevant laws.
This, often very long process (in this case 2 years, and sometimes it never completes) is one of the primary reasons why coverage is so often lacking in many areas and the networks gets blasted for bad signal and coverage. One of those cases where it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.
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