A group of Anna Bay residents has been given a reprieve by Port Stephens Council over the proposed installation of a second mobile phone tower located within 300 metres of residential properties and a child care centre.
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At the July 6 council meeting, councillors voted 9-1 to defer the matter in the hope that negotiations between the service providers could result in co-location.
In 2014 Telstra was approved to locate its mobile phone service on the existing pole owned by Regional Broadcasting Australia Holding.
The Optus development application (DA) called for a second monopole on the Fishermans Bay Road water tank, approximately 40m away.
Council agreed to reconsider the DA at its August 13 council meeting.
Anna Bay resident Charlie Douglas, whose property is less than 70m from the proposed site, requested that councillors consider co-location - a common practice at other sites.
"It is my understanding that when Telstra's DA was approved in November 2014, the conditions of consent included the provision for other carriers to co-locate on the same tower," he said.
"The alternative is the visual impact and the very real risk of falling property values."
Optus said that the difficulty in co-locating was in the limited space available on the monopole.
Telstra says that discussions need to be undertaken between Optus and RBAH.
"Construction on the Telstra mobile base station is expected to begin early next month ... and will enable Telstra to co-locate with the RBAH antennas."
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