Petition to fix mobile blackspots in Fern Bay and Fullerton Cove receives 1400 signatures

The petition, which Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon will present to parliament when it resumes later this month, highlights “serious deficiencies in mobile telecommunications infrastructure in the area” as well as “the risk this poses to residents and visitors in case of emergency”.

Residents from the two suburbs are angry at being ineligible for current funding arrangements because of their proximity to Newcastle.

Wendy Ditton, from the Palm Lakes Retirement Village, said there had been instances of residents being unable to call emergency services, including one case when a woman’s husband was having a heart attack.

“One day soon something terrible is going to happen because of it,” she said.

Ms Ditton said reception was so unreliable she had paid $1000 to have an antenna placed on her unit.

“An expense I could ill afford,” she said.

David Morrow from the Bay Way Village said it was “outrageous” that their reception issues were so severe when they lived so close to a major city.

The government committed $100 million in the first round of the program, but placed restrictions on the areas eligible to receive the funding to areas outside “metropolitan” regions.

However while Fern Bay and Fullerton Cove are considered part of that area, Williamtown and other parts of Paterson to the north were eligible.

“I think the government needs to make the program about need,” Ms Claydon said.

While she said she understood restricting access to “a flat in Bondi with bad reception”, areas like Fullerton Cove and Fern Bay were “clearly in dire need of a solution”

Labor has asked the Auditor-General to investigate the Mobile Black Spot Program after more than 80 per cent of the locations for new mobile phone towers were given to National or Liberal seats.