Telecommunications tower lease approved – Golden Plains Shire council meeting briefs

THE Golden Plains Shire council has approved leasing part of its Rokewood works depot to be used as a telecommunications tower site.

Councillors voted five to two in favour of signing a lease agreement with Amplitel, which wants to erect a tower to improve coverage in the township, for up to 20 years.

Under the Local Government Act, leases of more than 10 years must be submitted to public consultation before they are entered into.

The decision, taken at the council’s monthly meeting on Tuesday night, followed the lease proposal being opened for public comment from 27 January to 9 February.

There were 21 submissions, 15 of which were from Rokewood residents and three from each of Corindhap and Dereel.

Fifteen submissions were supportive of the lease being signed, four were opposed, one suggested a different site in Corindhap, and another wanted more information.

Key issues in the opposing responses were based on visual amenity, radiation fears, no need for 5G services, and health concerns.

An officer’s report to the meeting said the Rokewood Golf Club emerged as the overwhelmingly preferred site for a tower.

“…While this may be easy to consider from a local resident perspective the site selection process is undertaken through a process beginning with establishing a 500-metre search zone based on radio frequency testing to meet the optimum coverage objectives relating to the township and the Golden Plains Wind Farm,” the report said.

“The Rokewood Golf Club is outside the 500-metre primary search zone and, as a number of viable sites were identified in the original scope there was no need to extend the zone.”

The report noted that all submissions except one did not relate to the issue of the issuing of a lease.

The preferred site measures about 100 square metres on the eastern boundary of the depot, which is bounded by Hardie Street, Ferrars Street and Kuruc-A-Ruc Road.

Amplitel is acting on behalf of Telstra.

The two councillors who voted against the recommendation were Dom Cook and Gavin Gamble, both of whom expressed uncertainty about the site.

Cr Cook said the golf club should have been seriously considered as a location, while Cr Gamble foreshadowed a motion to defer the matter if the officer’s recommendation to sign the lease was not adopted.

But mayor Cr Owen Sharkey reminded them that the issue to be decided was whether a lease should be signed, not the matter of the tower’s siting.

Cr Sharkey said the actual site of the tower was a planning issue and would be dealt with at a later stage.

Before Cr Sharkey put the recommendation to a vote, Cr Des Phelan said anyone who built a telecommunications tower would ensure its location would provide the best coverage and therefore he would support the signing.

Tourism advisory committees to be set up

New tourism advisory committees will be established in the municipality, one to cover the north of the shire and one to focus on the south.

A recommendation to set up the committees was carried but with Cr Helena Kirby voting against, arguing that the centre of the shire was “once again” being ignored.

“I have brought it up numerous times … and once again, we have been neglected,” Cr Kirby said.

But Cr Sharkey told Cr Kirby her claim was misleading and was factually incorrect because the centre of the municipality was contained within both the northern and southern committee areas.

When Cr Kirby attempted to continue her comments, Cr Sharkey said: “I’m not entering into a debate Cr Kirby.”

“I’d just like it on the record that I have been advocating for the centre of the shire. Thank you,” Cr Kirby replied.

Membership of the committees will be drawn from tourism operators in the respective parts of the municipality.

They will meet quarterly to oversee development of relevant tourism development plans.

Renewable energy zone submission

Cr Phelan was the sole dissenting voter when approval was sought to lodge a formal submission on the proposed Central Highlands Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).

The zone covers parts of the Golden Plains, Corangamite and Pyrenees shires, along with smaller sections of the Moorabool and Colac Otway shires.

It aims to identify the best places to build wind and solar projects and batteries for storage, with Golden Plains already hosting several wind farms and further wind and battery/energy farms planned.

The submission will be lodged before the closing date of 15 March and will point out that while the council remains generally supportive of the REZ and renewable energy developments, it wants bushfire risk, areas unsuitable for development, opportunities for local jobs, and impacts on future residential growth areas all taken into account.

“It also highlights that community sentiment around these projects is mixed and as more are developed this sentiment may become worse,” an officer’s report said.

When he spoke against adopting the recommendation, Cr Phelan said the main problem was that “we’re getting these wind towers put all over the place”.

He said everyone had been “sucked in” to the push for net zero by 2050 and a rush to stop burning coal for energy production.

“The fact of the matter is that we stop burning coal and we’re going to wind and solar, that will not keep up,” Cr Phelan said.

“Industry’s walking away, things are going backwards in this country.

“The thing about it is, it’s so hypocritical that we … are 1 per cent of the global warming; they won’t let us burn coal to keep our power bills down, and we’re selling it to countries who are 25 per cent of global warming – while our power bills just go up and up and up.

“My power bill has gone up a thousand dollars a year since all this started; it’s about time someone stood up and said enough is enough.”

Move for fossil fuel industry levy

Cr Gamble successfully moved a notice of motion calling for a levy to be imposed on the fossil fuel industry to help councils pay for climate change initiatives.

The motion, carried unanimously, will be submitted to the national general assembly of the Australian Local Government Association in June.

“The highly profitable fossil fuel industry should be reasonably expected to directly contribute funds to mitigate consequences of their business activities,” Cr Gamble’s motion said.

It said asset degradation across the local government sector is already at unsustainable levels, and also calls for a more streamlined and better process for councils to access available funding to keep up with asset improvements in the face of severe weather events.