MOYSTON - Ararat Rural City Council has rejected a planning permit application by Optus Mobile Pty Ltd to install a mobile phone tower at the Moyston Recreation Reserve.
Optus proposed to install a 60 metre high lattice tower and ancillary equipment shelter at the reserve.
The applicant stated that the facility was required to improve the level of phone and data services into the Moyston area.
A gap in radio coverage had been identified in the Moyston area for the mobile service. The proposed installation would fill this gap coverage to the required quality of service and achieve contiguous coverage within the context of the surrounding sites.
Council gave notice of application over the Christmas New Year period and five objections were received.
The five objections submitted:
- Agreed with additional telecommunication for the area, but disagreed with the position, one of the lowest sites in Moyston.
- Requested that other unused reserves in Moyston be looked at.
- Stated that the oval is an historic icon and the height of tower would be an eyesore (twice the hight of the pine trees).
- There would be an impact to the visual aspect of the town, detracting from the historic atmosphere.
- There was a lack of consultation.
- There was a wide held stigma associated with telecommunication towers having the potential to lower property values, reduce numbers at the nearby primary school and discourage families from moving to the township.
While council officers recommended the permit be granted subject to conditions, Council itself rejected the application.
Cr Andrea Marian moved the recommendation that council reject the application for a planning permit.
"The long term strategic planning of Moyston will be very much impeded with this. I would see it as a visual impairment,'' Cr Marian said.
"It is in the community precinct, and it's a very small precinct and most of it is sporting pavilion and the like.
"There's certain benefits, monetary benefits, for this tower to go ahead and although I have no objection to a tower being installed in Moyston at all, this installation is in the lowest point of the land in Moyston and hence that's why it is so tall.''
Cr Marian said another consideration council should take into account was that once these towers are up, depending on the size of the initial dish, several dishes can be placed on them, whether with a planning permit or without a planning permit.
"They just grow from there and they become a visual nightmare in my opinion,'' Cr Marian said.
"I think there's lots of other places in Moyston it could be located but we have to deal with the location in the planning application at hand, hence the motion (to reject).''
Cr John Cunningham said council had had extensive discussion about the tower and the potential impact and that councillors Murray Woods and Ian Wilson had alluded to other sites that would be a far better place.
"Because of the statutory times required for us to deal with this motion, we weren't able to put it aside and go back and talk to the applicant and deal with it so it really gave us no other option but to either pass it without complete knowledge of what was happening or refuse it and give the applicant the option of either going to VCAT or enter into discussion with us, which is what our preferred option would be, to find a better resolution to this issue,'' he said.
"I absolutely agree with mobile phone coverage. We need to have mobile phone towers and we do, where possible, need to have all the information presented to us and the procedures involved in getting to council at this stage hasn't allowed for us to get all information and knowledge available.''
Another councillor to support the recommendation to reject the application was Cr Ian Wilson.
"'m very much a supporter of the Community Action Plans that council is working with, in particular in smaller communities over many years,'' he said.
"I think the Community Action Plan and the committees behind the plan in Moyston would be the ideal community group to be consulted about where we should locate a telecommunication tower in the community so hopefully the applicant may consider that in the way forward.''
After listening to the debate, Cr Colin McKenzie moved an amendment to the resolution, that the application be rejected, but that council consult the applicant regarding an alternate site.
"What a shame it would be to frighten them off all together and have a whole area without proper mobile phone coverage,'' he said.
"We've just seen a fire disaster and what could happen without proper coverage, where there's no proper communication between families in areas that are isolated by trees or topography of hills.
"With this amendment we would hope that this applicant would see there are concerns but we do encourage them to further that.''
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