Ascot Vale community rallies against new phone tower lease

This giant telecommunications tower was meant to get the boot but now the council is going back on its word. Neighbours are fed up and say it has to go but, with a new lease with a telco in the wings, their chances are not looking good.

The Ascot Vale community has banded together to get a telecommunications booted from their back yard. Picture: Ellen Smith

Ascot Vale neighbours have slammed a council proposal to keep a telecommunications tower in their back yard for up to 14 years, two years after being promised it would be moved.

Moonee Valley Council agreed to shift the tower from Walter Street Reserve to Riverside Golf and Tennis Centre in July 2017.

However, a council report has now recommended that it stay put until at least 2023 because the site wasn’t feasible and there were no other suitable spots for the giant tower.

Councillors are now deciding whether or not to sign a new lease with Axicom and Optus to continue to use the site.

It would lock the tower into the site for a further four years, with the option of two five-year extensions.

A second tower at the reserve is leased by Telstra until 2023.

Moonee Valley Mayor Samantha Byrne said investigations had found the Riverside site wasn’t feasible due to engineering constraints and a similar impact on nearby residents.

The tower is located just metres away from residential homes.

Ascot Vale’s Vicky Casey, 44, said her family bought into the estate in 2011 on the premise that both towers would be moved.

“We don’t want to believe there’s no viable sites, we won’t believe it,” she said.

“(The council) needs to look harder and work harder.”

Ms Casey said those that lived under the towers wanted them moved due to health concerns and perceived impacts on property values.

“I have a 15-year-old and an 11-year-old and I’m worried about radiation for them,” she said.

“We’re concerned for our families, children, babies, and teenagers, we don’t want to live under them.”

Community members were promised that the tower would be moved. Picture: Ellen Smith

But Optus vice president regulatory and public affairs Andrew Sheridan said independent bodies such as the World Health Organisation, Australian Radio Protection and Nuclear Scientific Agency had found no adverse health effects for mobile equipment.

Ms Casey has started a petition to get the towers moved which has garnered 270 signatures.

“We don’t want them moved to where other residents are, we just want it moved down to a river or open space where there are no other houses,” she said.

“We are not going to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Essendon state Labor MP Danny Pearson urged Optus and Axicom not to renew the lease.

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Cr Byrne said if the tower was decommissioned it could be replaced with 12 to 24 small cells, which would not require the council’s approval and could be met by similar public outcry.

The lease proposal has been deferred to the November 26 council meeting.