Coffs councillors push to prevent mobile phone towers near schools

New guidelines telegraphed following green light for tower on Hogbin Drive sporting fields.

Coffs Harbour City Councillors resolved to approve a 25m high tower at Advocate Park on Hogbin Drive.

Councillors are attempting to draw a line in the sand on mobile phone towers almost two months after one was approved close to a school.

Concerned Coffs Harbour City councillors have successfully edited a draft Telecommunications Infrastructure Policy to oppose towers being built within 500 metres of schools and childcare facilities.

The policy was drafted in response to a development application which came to council in November proposing a 25 metre Optus Tower in the middle of Advocate Park.

The DA was given the green light in March, meaning it will be built just a few hundred metres from St John Paul College on Hogbin Drive.

The alterations were made by Cr Paul Amos and Cr Tegan Swan at Thursday’s meeting and passed unanimously by councillors.

The site of a proposed mobile phone tower at Advocate Park on Hogbin Drive, Coffs Harbour.

While the new measures wouldn’t provide a guarantee towers couldn’t be constructed near schools, Cr Swan said it would be in line with the NSW Department of Education policy.

The department’s policy states a “preference” that towers be at least 500m from the school boundary.

“If the guideline is there, it is saying here is our preferred placement,” she said.

“If (telecommunications companies) want to provide that service, the onus is on them to do it in a way that suits our community and protects our children.”

When asked whether the policy might inadvertently send the message that mobile phone towers weren’t safe, Ms Swan said some studies, rather than declaring them safe, indicated there had “not been enough evidence to say one way or the other”.

“I don’t think it is sending a message that it is not safe,” she said.

“Why don’t we take the precautionary principle?”

The proposed site of the Optus tower.

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency states that based on current research there are no established health effects from the low exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic energy from mobile phone base station antennas.

When the Advocate Park tower was approved in March a representative for the proponent Axion Pty Ltd said concerns about the tower’s proximity to the school was unwarranted, adding that mandatory setbacks would make it “impossible for mobile carriers to service any city in Australia”.

Council will now publicly exhibit and consult the community on the draft Telecommunications Infrastructure Policy and amendments to two other council plans. A further report will come back to Council.