April 20, 2015
NBN Co is still hopeful it will be able to erect its NBN tower in a forestry area near Tingoora, rather than a site north of town at Swartzs Road that residents object to.
But a lease with the land’s new owners is still under negotiation, and the company is unable to say how long it take for the matter to be resolved.
NBN Co has issued an information update for Tingoora residents following a community meeting held at Tingoora State School on March 5.
The company had originally planned to erect the tower on forestry land near the Tingoora-Chelmsford Road, and began advertising this in late 2012.
When no objections were received, the South Burnett Regional Council gave the site development approval in March 2013.
However, things fell apart late last year when NBN Co. found the land’s former owners – a Tasmanian timber company – had been placed in receivership.
NBN Co was unable to negotiate a lease agreement with the receivers, so in late January this year they lodged a new development application with the Council for an alternative site at 39 Swartzs Road.
This proposal concerned many Tingoora residents, who thought the new site would destroy the town’s visual amenity and expose residents – particularly children – to unacceptable radiation risks.
But at a community meeting organised by Cr Ros Heit in early March, NBN Co representatives explained why they had been forced to look at an alternative tower site and why Swartzs Road was the second best option open to them.
They also explained the visual impact of the tower would be small and radiation levels minimal.
Unlike TV or radio signals – which can penetrate walls – NBN signals are so weak they require a cable from a roof-mounted reception dish to get inside houses, they said.
NBN Co was informed at the meeting the original site had just changed hands, and company representatives promised they would investigate this and report back because the original site was the company’s preferred option.
The company also promised they would get their engineers to measure the radio wave signal strengths that children attending Tingoora State School might be exposed to if the Swartzs Road site went ahead.
Today NBN Co apologised for the late response to residents, but said the company wanted to better understand the position on the forestry land before returning to the community with an update.
NBN Co said it had confirmed the forestry land had indeed returned to private ownership and was no longer under receivership.
The company said it had also been in contact with the property’s new owners, who had expressed an interest in retaining the fixed wireless facility on their land.
NBN Co said discussions with the new owners had been “positive and encouraging”, and if they formally agree to a lease, NBN Co will build the tower in the forestry area as originally planned.
“We believe this to be the likely outcome, and we are working towards that solution,” a company spokesman said.
“However NBN Co will retain the current development application (for Swartz’s Road) at Council until we obtain the owner’s consent to access the original location.”
The spokesman said the company could not advise how long discussions might take, but said it was trying to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.
The company also released information about the maximum signal strength that would occur at Tingoora State School if the Swartz’s Road tower had to be built.
NBN Co said the maximum signal strengths would be:
- Closest school boundary – 0.014 per cent or more than 7100 times below the safety standard
- Centre of the school campus – 0.014 per cent or more than 7100 times below the safety standard
- Playground – 0.012 per cent or more than 8300 times below the safety standard
Cr Ros Heit, who helped organised the March 5 community meeting and has been in regular contact with the company ever since, said today she was ecouraged by NBN Co’s response, though she could also understand the frustration of some residents about the length of time negotiations were taking.
“As I understand things, the new forestry owners are another large company and these negotiations have to go through quite a few layers. I think we just need to be patient.
“NBN Co have been very responsive to residents’ concerns and are working hard to secure tenure on the forestry site, so I’m sure they’ll do their best to get this settled as quick as they can.”
The company’s full community update and electromagnetic radiation study can be downloaded here as PDFs:
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[UPDATED April 21, 2015]
