By Alesha Capone
Wyndham council has approved plans to erect a phone tower in Point Cook, despite one councillor voting against the proposal because of the “stress” it has caused residents.
The application to install the telephone monopole at 280–286 Point Cook Road, within the Sanctuary Lakes Hotel rear carpark, attracted 25 objections.
According to a council report, the objections related to the appearance of the 25.6-metre tall pole, environmental impacts, “perceived negative health effects” and property devaluation.
The site is surrounded by residential areas on three sides.
A childcare centre adjoins the site to the north and a primary school is situated about 185 metres further north.
The application to the council, prepared by Kordia Solutions on behalf of Optus Mobile, said the telecommunications facility has been designed to comply with radiofrequency emission exposure levels set by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency.
However, speaking at a planning meeting earlier this month, Cr Jasmine Hill said that in reading the objectors’ letters, she could tell the monopole proposal has triggered “very high anxiety levels among our people”.
Cr Hill said some parents had written they would remove their children from the nearby school “because they worry about the potential radiation”.
Point Cook resident Sharon Yap spoke against the monopole proposal at the council meeting.
Ms Yap said that she had previously worked at the RMIT University building in Melbourne’s CBD which was labelled as a potential “cancer cluster” in 2006, after more than 15 staff members based in the top two storeys developed tumours.
Amid fears the tumours could be linked to mobile phone towers on the Bourke Street building’s roof, the university tested for radiation emissions and shut part of the site for two months.
An independent study later found there was no evidence of a cancer cluster at the building.
However, Ms Yap said: “I was in that building during that time and I saw seven of my colleagues get a brain tumour”.
She said that as a result, having a mobile phone tower close to a school and her home was a cause for concern.
