The proposal

Council has been approached by Telstra and their project partners requesting the use of Grange Recreation Reserve for the purposes of constructing and operating a 5G telecommunication tower and ancillary infrastructure under leasing arrangements for a period of twenty (20) years.

Why are we consulting?

Grange Recreation Reserve is defined as ‘community land’ by the Local Government Act 1999 (LG Act). In accordance with the LG Act, Council must maintain a Community Land Management Plan (CLMP) for the Reserve that sets out how the Reserve can be developed and used, and whether a lease to occupy any part of the Reserve can be issued to a commercial operator. The current CLMP does not support a lease for the purposes of Telstra's proposal and, therefore, the CLMP must be amended for their request to use the reserve to be considered by Council.

For Council to make amendments to its CLMP for Grange Recreation Reserve to consider current or future lease requests for telecommunication infrastructure, public consultation is required gather community views and feedback necessary to inform Council's decision making about the proposed amendments.

We invite your feedback on the proposed amendments to the CLMP to allow use of the Reserve for the purposes of constructing a telecommunications tower. You can view the updated proposed CLMP in the document library to the right.

The consultation process is being undertaken on the proposed amendments pursuant to section 198(2) of the LG Act.

Policy requirements

Council maintains a "Telecommunications and Electricity Infrastructure on Council Land" Policy. Staff have investigated the Telstra request and find it does fit within the criteria required for public consideration - that they have been unable to find another suitable location; and that they are unable to co-locate with another telecommunications provider.

Consultation Process

The consultation feedback we receive will be used to ensure Council decision making duly considers the community’s view to the proposals.

A report to undertake consultation on the proposed changes to the CLMP and to consider the lease request from Telstra was presented to the Asset Management Committee on Monday, 20 September 2021 and endorsed by Council on Monday 27 September 2021. The full report can be viewed on Council’s website Asset Management Committee.

Consultation commences on Thursday 7 October 2021 and closes at 5.00pm on Friday 29 October 2021.

The results of this consultation and your feedback will be reported to Council providing them with the information and detail required to make an informed decision relating to the Telstra proposal.

UPDATE: Outcomes & Decision Report to Council

Council would like to advise a change to their published notification dates regarding Council consideration of the proposed amendments to the Community Land Management Plan for Grange Recreation Reserve.

A report was proposed to be presented to the Asset Management Committee on Monday 15 November 2021 that outlined results of the community consultation and feedback received from this consultation process. However, due to the volume and diversity of responses received during the consultation period further time is required to collate, categorise and respond to the feedback accurately to ensure clear and accurate information is provided for Council’s decision making in this proposal.

The consultation feedback report for the outcome of community consultation will now be presented to Council at the General Meeting on Monday 13 December 2021.

The Council Agenda and report will be available for viewing on Council’s website after 4:00pm on Thursday 9 December, 2021 via the link below:

Should you wish to make a deputation at the meeting you will need to have submitted the Deputation Request form to Council by 10.00am on Monday 13 December 2021, further information and forms are available on Council’s website:

Final Outcomes & Next Steps

A report was presented to Council on Monday 13 December 2021 to deliver the outcomes of the consultation and the following motion was endorsed:

Motion

  1. That Council accepts this report and acknowledges the community feedback to the proposed amendments to the Grange Recreation Reserve Community Land Management Plan.
  2. That Council resolve to amend the Grange Recreation Reserve Community Land Management Plan (Appendix C) pursuant to Section 198 of the Local Government Act 1999.
  3. That Council, having resolved to amend the Grange Recreation Reserve Community Land Management Plan (Appendix C), do so with the following conditions being applied to any request for use of the Reserve for telecommunications tower purposes ‐
    1. a single tower may only be permitted to be constructed on the Reserve; and
    2. the tower must not be positioned within a 100m distance of any residential building; and
    3. the applicant must plant, or contribute to planting, any tree screening, greening or landscaping Council determines reasonable and necessary to limit visual intrusion and including the measures for reducing or mitigating resident concerns as outlined in the report


NEXT STEPS

We will now undertake discussion with Telstra to determine the location of the telecommunications tower and requirements as detailed in the Council motion. Following these discussions we will undertake community consultation for the alienation of community land pursuant to Section 202 of the Local Government Act 1999.