By KATH GANNAWAY
Council approves sawmill site despite objections
YARRA Ranges Council has approved a controversial communications tower in Millgrove, saying community safety has to take priority over concerns about visual impact.
Telstra’s proposal to build the 40metre monopole on the sawmill site in the centre of the town has been challenged over the past 12 months by a number of residents who strongly objected to the tower, saying it would degrade the area.
But Telstra argued the tower was needed in Milgrove to provide capacity expansion for the 4G network, and that the sawmill site was the best and most cost-effective location.
Resident Brendan Partel spoke passionately at the 25 March council meeting on behalf of the 50 objectors who were supported by a petition of 136 signatures.
One submission was received in support of the proposal along with two petitions with a total of 221 signatures.
He told the meeting there was a very real concern for the effect the tower would have on the look of the township for both residents and visitors.
“Telstra’s policy of visual impact is clearly not the case,” he said.
Mr Partel said after the meeting he and other objectors were disappointed with the decision.
“I found it a bit disturbing that all the elements of heritage, the Green Wedge zoning and visual impact didn’t seem to matter and that this site was accepted as the only place it could go,” he said.
“Comparing a 40-metre tower to telephone poles is a wrong analogy, and that the whole thing is not classed as a visual impact, I find totally bizarre.”
Telstra Planning consultant Matt Evans said there was no claim that the tower would not have a visual impact.
“The test to be applied is not to avoid being able to see the facility. We fully acknowledge the top of the facility can be seen from many vantage points, but it will not dominate the landscape,” he said.
Telstra Corporate Affairs manager David Imber said they were disappointed at the recommendation to reject the proposal which he said would provide both 3G (for voice) and 4G (for data) services.
“Some people may well be having a good experience, but we have to plan for the future and make sure the service is there for existing customers as data increases, and it is doubling,” he said.
“We need to make sure people can access communications in emergency situations,” he added.
In the end, it was that access to voice and data in an emergency that played most into Cr Jim Child’s alternate recommendation to approve the tower.
He acknowledged some visual impact but said he didn’t believe it was a major impact.
“If you’re getting a glimpse of these towers against these landscapes when they’re already broken, you don’t notice it all that much,” he said.
But in relation to communications he said in 2009 (on and after Black Saturday) the Upper Yarra network had failed requiring a temporary transmitter to be installed.
“Many years down the track from 2009 we haven’t seen any improvement in that network and it would be a mistake to treat Black Saturday as a one-off event,” he said.
“What I really want to see is that our communities are prepared and state-of-the-art as far as communication is concerned. This will do that,” he said.
Councillors Child, McAllister, Avery, Witlox, McCarthy and Callanan voted to approve the application with Cr Samantha Dunn voting against.
