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Phone Towers
 Some Gooseberry Hill residents have no or poor mobile phone and wireless Internet access. Attempts to solve this have dragged on for a long time. The latest is with Optus wanting to put a phone tower near the Gooseberry Hill primary school. There has been loud opposition to this location, which has been supported by the Kalamunda Council. 500m policy
The Kalamunda Council have a "no phone towers within 500m of sensitive areas" policy. Even though the Council have no power to enforce this policy, it can and does slow the installation of phone towers. The policy is unworkable, as if it was applied, there would be no mobile phone and wireless Internet in the shire of Kalamunda. Inconsistencies
However the policy still exists, yet there are glowing inconsistencies with this policy. One such example is the Telstra phone tower, 200 metres from the ABC child care centre in Maida Vale, at the corner of Kalamunda road and Gooseberry Hill road. Also the Maida Vale primary school on Kalamunda road. The loud opposition to the Gooseberry Hill phone tower was that young children would be exposed to radio waves from the phone tower each day while at school. The point expressed was that children are more susceptible to radio waves than adults. So why does this not apply to the even younger children at the child care centre, who may be there for even longer hours? Questions
Did the Kalamunda Council have to approve of the establishment of the ABC child care centre? If they did why did they allow it to be built, when it is only 200m from the phone tower? If the Kalamunda Council does not have a role in approval, then did they oppose the establishment anyway, as a matter of their 500m policy? The primary school is also about the same distance away from the phone tower, well under the 500m rule, so did the Kalamunda Council oppose the establishment of the phone tower, as I believe the school was there before the phone tower? More examples
There are many examples of the inconsistency of the Kalamunda Council's policy on phone towers. This example is but one. The photograph and map below show the proximity of the child care centre and the primary school to the large mobile phone tower. |
