Saratoga Telstra Tower fate decided this week

An application for a Telstra tower at 138 and 140 Davistown Road Saratoga goes to the Local Planning Panel this week.

The facility is a 26.8m monopole and associated infrastructure including transceivers, combiners and cable trays. 

The application goes to the Local Planning Panel this Thursday, February 25, because of the number of submissions when it went on public exhibition about this time last year.

It attracted a total of 58 submissions including three in support and a petition with over 50 signatures. 

The Council has recommended approval despite the height being 80 per cent above guidelines for development in the area.

Other objections included the visual impact and increased electromagnetic energy.

The council report said the maximum Environmental Electromagnetic Energy (EME) level was calculated to be 10.16% of the maximum 100% of the public exposure limit. 

“This is an increase of 1.2% of the maximum public exposure limit when compared to the facility which currently exists and remains to be significantly below the limit,” the report said.

“The report has been reviewed by Council’s Environmental Health Officer who is in support of the application subject to relevant conditioning.”

Some of the current telecommunications equipment on the site would be removed to make way for the tower. 

The aim of the proposal is to provide improved Telstra coverage to the Saratoga and Davistown areas as increased congestion and service issues have been identified.

• Merilyn Vale, Central Coast Council Watch

PS: If you’re reading this and want to get more council watch news, send your email address to cccouncilwatch@gmail.com 

I’ll figure out some way to get my news out without you having to go to my website to check if I’ve posted……