Bill Mills and Trevor Nickless stand guard over the lamppost where 2degrees plans to place a new cell tower.

The site of a proposed cell phone tower has pit neighbour against neighbour and a demand for answers from 2degrees.

In August, Trevor Nickless learnt he was about to have a new addition to view from the front porch of his Pukekohe home.

A cell phone tower, courtesy of 2degrees, was due to be installed within the next few months potentially reducing the value of his home.

But it's not just the potential loss of value that's left him fuming, but rather the fact he was the last to know.

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JAMES BAKER/STUFF A side-by-side comparison of the two towers the second outside will be over three metres taller.

"My neighbour [Bill Mills] approached me and said 'do you have any idea what's going on?'"

Nickless learnt that in April residents in the area all received letters letting them know a 7.5-metre cell tower was on its way.

But at the time the proposed site wasn't outside Nickless' home - it was 50 metres south.

A trail of email communication between 2degrees Property Manager Ben Blakemore revealed some neighbours were outraged at the original idea.

"Thats going on[?] you are destroying my family wih [sic] this eyesore going in next to my house," wrote one neighbour in an email.

"My Wife and i [sic] are stressing to the max and worried about how it's going to look also our health and our boys health plus the neighbors [sic] health. Also, there is the value of our homes which will go down. If you cared about pleoples [sic] health and wellness which apparently you take seriously you would put it somewhere else."

JAMES BAKER/STUFF The original proposed site of the cell tower.

So with Nickless out of the loop, a solution was suggested in May.

"Why not put [sic] further down the street the owners that received the letter about it aren't complaining?" wrote a neighbour.

So in June Blakemore met with the group and an alternative location was circled on a map - Nickless' house.

But that wasn't all. Due to the geography of the new location, the tower's height would also be increased from 7.5 metres to 11 metres.

"So you've passed the same set of issues on to a different set of people, only now the tower is three metres taller and 48 millimetres wider," Nickless said.

"I contacted them after I found out and their response was 'it's already been decided'."

Nickless said the situation had divided the neighbourhood.

"[As neighbours] used to wave at each other now we just glare."

But while he's not happy with some of his neighbours, he says the responsibility ultimately lies with 2degrees.

"But what really irks me is the process they've have gone through.

"Look nobody is was going to be happy, it's a no-win situation, but I would have appreciated the courtesy of being consulted before any decision was made.

"They could have just trogged down here and knocked on the door."

Across the road, Bill Mills said there were others in the neighbourhood that felt the same.

"As a result of the way this has been handled by [2degrees] - we've got the situation where two groups of neighbours are at loggerheads with each other."

2degrees spokeswoman Katherine Cornish said that Nickless was given ample opportunity to make his concerns known in the months leading up to the decision.

"We informed residents in the vicinity about our intentions for the original site via a posted letter which included a letter delivered to Mr Nickless' address.

"Following that letter our property manager visited the group that formed to better understand their concerns about viewing outlooks from multiple living areas...2degrees determined that the alternative site, adjacent to Mr Nickless' property, would allow us to replace an existing pole and at the same time have a lesser impact on the outlook from a larger number of living areas in the area."