‘I won’t be supporting this’: Council divided over Urangan mobile phone tower
A vote on a mobile phone tower became contentious at the Fraser Coast council meeting this week after concerns were raised about its proximity to a daycare centre, where some children spend 50 hours a week.
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An application to place a phone tower at the rear of the Urangan Central Shopping Centre was only narrowly approved by the Fraser Coast Regional Council this week because it would be 500m from a childcare centre.
The mobile telephone base station would be a 30m-tall monopole located on the northern corner of the site, adjacent to a mobility corridor.
It will be used by Optus as part of its 4G and 5G network.
The motion to approve the application was made by councillor Zane O’Keefe and seconded by councillor Paul Truscott.
Councillor John Weiland spoke against allowing the material change of use application.
“I spent probably a lot longer than I should have on this one item,” he said.
Mr Weiland said he wasn’t willing to “take the risk” of putting the base station 100m from a daycare where children would potentially spend up to 50 hours a week.
“The question that I asked myself when I made that decision was ‘would I put my son there?’
“He currently attends daycare five days a week, and the answer is no, so I won’t be supporting this.”
Councillor Denis Chapman asked a council officer about the issue of possible radiation and was told the application had to meet a number of assessments before it could go ahead and radiation would be very low levels.
The council was told there were constant needs for improvement in telecommunications across the region.
Councillor Lachlan Cosgrove also raised concerns, saying that if he wouldn’t put his children in the nearby daycare due to “an abundance of caution” he couldn’t ask other mums and dads to do it.
Mr Cosgrove said he would not vote in favour of the motion.
Mr O’Keefe said there were numerous phone towers across the Fraser Coast and the council officer’s recommendations were based on “solid science”.
The motion eventually passed by a margin of 6-5.