Questions for Hobart council

Here are two letters that John Matthewson wrote earlier this week concerning Telstra's phone tower.

The first - to the Hobart City Council - bluntly asks if the HCC properly followed planning guidelines in 2005 when council approved Telstra's initial tower application.

Residents say it was done without appropriate advertising or community consultation. There's been no answer yet from the council's general manager Brent Armstrong.


Subject: Mobile PHONE TOWER
17 Beach Road Sandown Park Sandy Bay

Date: Monday, 28 May 2007 11:52 AM
From: John Matthewson
To: Brent Armstrong Hobart City Council
Cc: Ald Ron Christie

Dear Mr Brent Armstrong
Would you please forward to me a copy of the original Telstra submission in relation to the Telstra Mobile Tower at 17 Beach Road Sandown Park on which the full council unanimously approved that project.

Also the date of that submission and all copies and dates of advertisements placed in The Mercury by the Hobart City Council.

In addition, the number of signs (purported) to have been erected, their dates of erection and removal and Mercury advertisements lodged by the Hobart City Council.

Also a copy of the letter sent to the only resident and the date that this was forwarded.

This request is being made by me in the interest of the concerned residents in this area, due to the lack of consultation by the Hobart City Council to those residents, that were denied their democratic right to have their say in relation to this project. In conclusion I did email Alderman Ron Christie in relation to my request and he suggested that this be passed to you in writing.

sincerely
John Matthewson.
Sandy Bay

John then wrote to the paper on 29th May

Letter to The Mercury
Editor
The Mercury

In response to the continued mantra from Telstra's Chris Althaus stating that there is no cause for health alarms due to exposure to the erection of mobile phone towers - I refer him to Telstra's failed obligation to consult with the community prior to the construction of this tower in Sandy Bay which is directly outside the door of a child care centre.

Further, residents in Hurstville Sydney were succesful in having a mobile tower removed in 2003 due to the inadequacy of the Australian Communications Authority to consult with them because it was close to a school - refer http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/08/1057430209500.html.

Also a new draft plan has been prepared by the Waverley City Council 28/07/98 following consideration of plans prepared Sutherland, Woollahra, Drummoyne, Marrickville & Ashfield Councils,because of the concerns of electromagnetic emissions near schools.

In conclusion, here is an item from the Brisbane Times 20/05/07 entitled St Lucia residents in Brisbane revolt over phone tower. This 'revolt' was due to Telstra flouting industry rules with plans to build a mobile phone tower in their inner Brisbane suburb.

John Matthewson.

Appealing to higher authority

Resident David Ritz has passed on two letters he's written to the Hobart City Council and to Lara Giddings, State Minister for Health together with this photo illustrating the folly of siting a transmission tower in the midst of a popular children's recreation area. The picture was taken from the roof above Gymbaroo child care centre at 4pm on Saturday afternoon. There was soccer training most of the afternoon as well as soccer games on the lower ground. At least 60 children and 30 adults were present on the top ground. The base of the tower is on the right of the picture.


Email to Hobart City Council

Note sent Sat. May 26th

Dear Mayor and Aldermen,

I was present at the meeting on Monday 21/5/07 when the motion about the mobile phone tower in Sandown Park was discussed. The motion was not supported on the grounds that due process was followed in advertising the proposal as located at 17 Beach Road (Sandown Park).

I have been to the Titles Office to get clarification of the exact whereabouts of 17 Beach Rd. The records show 14 titles, all of which are within the area bounded by Sandown Park i.e. between Beach Rd and Sandown Avenue, a total of about 4 hectares. Your acceptance of Telstra's proposal thus gave them the right to erect the tower anywhere in the Park they chose. The fact that they chose a site alongside Sandown Ave makes it hardly surprising that the original newspaper advertisement did not result in any objections from Sandown Ave residents. So, to reject the motion passed at the public meeting because no-one objected to the original advertisement, is a highly specious and unfounded argument.

All of the 14 titles have a reference number and Telstra could have identified precisely where the tower site was planned to be. In fact, their proposal to Council stated that the tower would be about 40 metres from Sandown Avenue. It was misleading and deceitful to advertise the site as being located on Beach Road. In fact the site is 31 metres from Sandown Avenue and only 12 metres from the door of a toddler playgroup.

Sincerely, David Ritz


Email to Lara Giddings

Dear Minister,

I would like to bring the case below to your attention. For the last 3-4 weeks, concerned residents of Sandy Bay have been mounting an opposition to the erection of a mobile phone base station tower in Sandown Park.

We have voiced our concerns to the Hobart City Council but they seem unwilling or unable to reverse their acceptance of Telstra's proposal for the tower to be built. The case described below was in NSW in 2004 but there have been many scientific studies since that have confirmed the health risks of radiation of the type emitted by mobile phone base stations.

The NSW government has ruled that mobile phone base stations cannot be built within 300 metres of primary schools or kindergartens. The tower in Sandown Park is 12 metres from the door of a toddler playgroup facility and close to playing fields regularly used by children (see picture attached).

We believe this is a health issue that requires State and Federal Government intervention.

Sincerely, David Ritz


Optus forced to take down tower, built less than 300 metres from a child care centre, in Major's Bay Rd, Concord.

NSW Court of Appeal judge, Justice Giles rules in favour of Canada Bay Council, finding the community's concerns about the facility and its proximity to Concord Kindergarten were an important consideration.

"As I have said, the opponent's evidence included evidence of concern at the effect of electromagnetic emissions; in particular of the perceived effect on the conduct of kindergartens in the vicinity. It may well be that the concerns have no scientific support, and that if in the consideration of a development application they are sought to be brought into account they cannot have significance on the principle that unfounded fears are of no weight in the administration of the planning laws. On the other hand, it may be that the concerns can appropriately be taken into account as something which a body in the position of the opponent can include in relevant considerations upon a development application. For present purposes it seems to me that the opponent is entitled to say that the concerns exist and have an impact on its conduct and on the lives of its ratepayers, and that if as a collateral result of the decision of Lloyd J it is able to ameliorate the concerns because this facility cannot operate without the consideration which a development application would allow that is something which can be taken into account in deciding whether or not there should be a stay."

http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/disp.pl/au/cases/nsw/NSWCA/2004/446.html
(paragraph 17)

Residents dudded over mobile phone tower

Residents near Sandown Park in lower Sandy Bay are vigorously opposing the construction of a 23 metre high Telstra communications tower in the park. The Hobart City Council has refused so far to halt construction despite a petition and a public meeting attended by 86 people.

Sandown Park is regarded as a 'sensitive area' because it is regularly used for children's sport including athletics and soccer and because a child care centre, Gymbaroo, catering for very young children, is less than a dozen steps from the base of Telstra's tower. Gymbaroo leases space in the Hobart Council-owned pavilion that also houses changing rooms and a canteen used by sporting groups.

Sensitive areas are supposed to have at least 200 metres clearance from the nearest mobile phone tower.

There is talk of adding an extra floor to the pavilion which would expose even more people to radiation from transmission aerials on Telstra's mast.

We object to the Hobart City Council's hypocritical decision to reluctantly (but unanimously) recommend approval for the tower's construction.

The Mercury wrote this account of the Hobart council meeting on 21 May. The council's development and environmental services committee gave Telstra the go-ahead but was critical of council officers, recommending that the council should "...widen its community consultation".

However a spokesman for residents opposing the tower, John Matthewson, says that neither Telstra nor the Hobart City Council had properly consulted adjacent householders as required.

The council claims that because there's a road between the park and adjacent houses, they have no statutory requirement to advise those householders of the planning application.

Mr Matthewson says the Council wrongly claims that Beach Road is the location of the tower. The address given in press advertisements and on signs was 17 Beach Road. This is not correct. Here is the map from Whereis on which the tower's approximate location has been marked. The park is clearly bounded by Sandown Avenue and Long Point Road - not Beach Road.

Telstra, according to Hobart's Lord Mayor Rob Valentine, received planning approval two years ago - thus, he says, "It's too late for the Council to take any action." However the communications industry's own code states that exhaustive consultation should have taken place before such towers are built - something residents say "did not occur".

Council officers agreed to Telstra's proposal for the tower (for its Next G network) in return for the 'free' installation of four lights at the lower Sandown Park ground. These lights, valued at $80,000, are intended to allow night-time soccer.

By accepting a one-off payment, the Hobart City Council may have foregone rental amounting to a potential $325,000. This is calculated on a 25 year lease at $13,000 per annum, figures commonly used on the mainland.


The council's placement of the concrete footings for the light towers has also affected Queenborough little athletics club, forcing a shift of their 100m and 400m tracks as well as the run-ups for long jump, triple jump and javelin. The outside circular track is now appreciably shorter, with tight curves.

For several years Sandown Park has also hosted Carols by Candlelight which attracts crowds of ten thousand or more.

John Matthewson took the pictures of the tower base but swears he didn't write the graffiti. (Psst - but we now know who did)