October 28, 2015
Cr Ros Heit is jumping for joy because NBNCo has erected its Tingoora network tower in forestry south of the town.
The construction – on a site NBNCo gained approval for, then lost, then got back again – has put an end to eight months of uncertainty for Tingoora residents.
NBNCo are also pleased.
As they told concerned residents at a public meeting in April, the forestry site was always the best possible location for the tower.
A proposed alternative site on Swartz’s Road north of Tingoora, which the company applied for earlier this year when the forestry site’s previous owners went into receivership, was a “second best choice” because a tower there would service fewer households.
Community spokesman Megan Fearby, who chaired several public meetings about the Tinny Tower and spear-headed a campaign to lodge objections about relocating it to Swartz’s Road is pleased, too.
“The Tingoora community is very happy with how they were listened to and how their concerns were taken into account,” Megan said.
The eight-month long saga of the Tinny Tower began in February when NBNCo’s infrastructure delivery contractors Daly International placed a public notice in newspapers to notify residents it was seeking planning permission to build a 40 metre tower on a site at 39 Swartz’s Road, north of the town.
The notice called for public comment on the proposal.
Tingoora residents held a meeting with Cr Heit and the SBRC’s Planning Manager Chris Du Plessis several days afterwards to find out why NBNCo wanted to build a tower on Swartz’s Road when they had already received approval to put the tower in forestry to the south, to which no one had any objection.
Some residents were concerned a tower at Swartz’s Road would destroy the area’s visual amenity.
Others had concerns they could be exposed to higher levels of background radiation by the Swartz’s Road tower, which would be 70m from the nearest dwelling.
Later that same evening, at a second public meeting held at Tingoora State School, residents agreed they wanted NBN in the area but were unhappy the tower was being shifted from its original location near the Tingoora-Chelmsford Road to Swartz’s Road.
They asked why other sites further away from houses were not being considered.
Cr Heit said she didn’t know the answers, but would contact Daly International on the group’s behalf to ask if company representatives could attend a follow-up public meeting to explain their position, and share information about the advantages and disadvantages of alternative tower locations.
Daly responded quickly to the request, and at a second public meeting held at the school a few weeks later said they were as unhappy with the Swartz’s Road site as some local residents.
They said the problem with the original site was that the forestry’s owners had gone into receivership after Daly obtained planning approval for the tower, and NBNCo had been unable to secure a lease on the tower site.
Daly’s engineers had also checked all other possible locations in the area for a tower but because of Tingoora’s hills, Swartz’s Road was the next best option.
The representatives also attempted to calm fears about loss of visual amenity and radiation exposure.
NBNCo towers emitted much lower radiation levels than mobile phone towers, they said. So low, in fact, they couldn’t penetrate household walls.
The towers were also much thinner than mobile phone towers, so had less impact on the visual environment.
Towards the end of the meeting, Tingoora resident Russell Dower said he’d come to let NBNCo know he had just heard the forestry area had been sold to new owners, so the original tower site might now be available for lease again.
NBNCo’s representatives said this was very good news if it was correct, and they would investigate it immediately.
A month later NBNCo informed Cr Heit the forestry site had indeed changed hands and Daly International was in negotiations with the company than now owned it.
However, the company’s headquarters were located overseas. So while Daly had received feedback the new owners were agreeable to the proposal, negotiations were taking longer than they normally would.
Cr Heit said today that as the months had dragged on – and in the absence of any negative news from NBNCo – she believed things were proceeding as planned.
But news that NBNCo’s new tower had recently appeared over the top of Tingoora’s forestry came as an unexpected surprise.
“What I think this situation proves is that if any community has concerns about something, if they come together and approach a situation calmly, very often a solution can be found which will produce a good outcome for everybody,” Cr Heit said.
“The Tinny Tower has turned out to be a win-win for everyone, the Tingoora community, NBNCo and the new owners of the Tingoora forestry.”
She said while the issue did take eight months to resolve and she understood the frustrations some people had with the delay, that was just the way things go sometimes.
“But I would like to sincerely thank all Tingoora residents who attended the meetings we held about this, and Daly International and NBNCo for their prompt response to our concerns and their follow-through.
“The way NBNCo handled this was a credit to them. And I think we all learned a lot about the NBN that we never knew before, which was a nice bonus.”
Related articles:
- Tower ‘Likely’ On Forest Site
- Tinny Tower Still Being Negotiated
- Towering Problem May Be Solved
- Town Objects To NBN Tower Site
