By Mikayla van Loon
The promise of better connection has outweighed potential visual bulk of a new telecommunications tower in Chirnside Park.
Approving the planning application for a new monopole tower to be built at the Chirnside Park Country Club, Yarra Ranges councillors said, at the Tuesday 12 March meeting, the benefits offset the negatives.
Despite some conjecture from nearby residents and from Cr Tim Heenan as well, construction of the tower was approved unanimously.
The application was submitted by Ventia, who will initially facilitate the supply of Telstra connection, with the vision to be a collocation for other providers within three to six months.
“Due to the limitations of the current 4G Telstra antennas and for the Country Club, this application seeks to resolve coverage issues at Chirnside Park using a new location for Telstra facilities at the premises,” Amplitel Telstra representative Marc Bays said.
Having already been the site for a telecommunications antenna on the rooftop of the club’s building, Mr Bays said it seemed appropriate to not establish a new site although they were investigated.
“The Country Club stands out as the most suitable candidate as it effectively avoids the need for introducing a new additional telecommunication site within Yarra Ranges,” he said.
The existing three-metre facility in the form of a slimline chimney will be decommissioned with the installation of the new 30-metre-high monopole and the ancillary equipment.
It will be painted in mist green, with the already established trees working to shield the pole and extra yellow box gums and lilly pillies proposed as part of the plan.
A total of 16 objections were received mostly relating to electromagnetic health concerns, visual implications and noise during construction. In contrast, eight submissions of support were also made indicating the current service connection was not good.
Telstra has four other telecommunications facilities within Lilydale, Mooroolbark and Chirnside Park, all to which it identified were not suitable for improving coverage or collocation.
Cr Heenan said this was his reason for not supporting the application.
“I’m a bit befuddled and not understanding why as Telstra says on page 36 of the report that they already have equipment at the location of Chirnside Park Shopping Centre and therefore collocation is not an option,” he said.
“The nearest one is 1.3 kilometres, it said and we only have the word of our presenter tonight to say that this is needed in this location at a much higher elevation. I would have probably looked at it a little bit more favourably had it not been quite a substantial structure.”
Putting forward the motion to approve the application, Cr Len Cox said with areas of the Yarra Ranges still with poor reception, providing the community with better access to communications seemed necessary.
“We all have mobile phones and we need towers to make them work. We’ve had some bad storms, floods, all sorts of stuff lately, it’s just so important to have [a mobile] that works,” he said.
Seconding the motion, Cr Jim Child said the perceived benefit in his eyes is the collocation option for other service providers.
“We heard about collocation and that is probably one of the biggest things for me. It’s free enterprise at its best,” Cr Child said.
“Why shouldn’t we have a facility built where we’ve got it available to all the carriers and if it’s available to the carriers, well then it’s available to our community so they get the best bang for their buck.”
The proposal also received verbal support from Cr Andrew Fullagar who said in an age of more emergencies “there’s a continuing and ever increasing demand for comms” so “the overall community benefit outweighs the downside on this one”.
Mr Bays did, however, say a generator in the instance of a blackout to power the facility would likely not be feasible because of the noise factor, with “remote sites” “assigned generators”.
This did not curtail the decision from the councillors, with the vote in favour of approving the monopole. Cr Heenan was the only one to vote against it.
