Mobile phone proposal meets a tower of objection

A PROPOSED Optus mobile phone tower above Portarlington’s CFA building – directly opposite the town’s primary school – has met with fierce objection from the local community.

Portarlington Primary School children and their parents converged near the site last week to highlight to CPS Global that they did not want six panel antennas and associated support structures and cabling attached to an existing CFA lattice tower, located at 8 Fisher Street.

Father of three Murray Buchanan said the proposed location was close to one of the most sensitive areas in Portarlington.

“The Portarlington Primary School has upwards of 230 children in attendance on a daily basis and I believe another site has to be found,” Mr Buchanan said.

“It is my opinion that this consultation process is a ‘tick in the box’ exercise to select a preferred site with no regards to the minimising of EME (Electromagnetic energy) exposure to the most vulnerable in our community who attend the local primary school.”

Parent Gabrielle Waller said it was not that the tower was not wanted in the area, as reception for the Optus network could be very poor, but that the community strongly objected to the location of the tower.

“Surely anywhere is better than opposite a school full of young vulnerable children who are still growing and developing and absorbing everything in their environment at a higher rate than adults,” Ms Waller said.

Ms Waller said history had shown that things deemed “safe” at the time had actually caused major health problems in the future to those who were exposed.

CPS Global, which is making the planning application for the tower on behalf of Optus, stated that Optus identified a need to improve telecommunication services within the township of Portarlington and surrounding areas.

“The suitability of a number of candidate sites were assessed using the factors required by the Communications Alliance Industry Code – Mobile Phone Base Station Deployment, including environmental considerations, and Optus’ radio frequency coverage objectives.”

Two federal government agencies, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), are responsible for regulating RF EME exposure.

ARPANSA has developed a public health standard which sets limits for human exposure to RF EME.

The limits are set well below the level at which adverse health effects are known to occur and include a wide safety margin to protect the public.

Submissions to CPS Global’s community consultation about the Optus tower can be made via email to [email protected] until July 10.