A communications tower planned to sit almost 10km outside of Harvey has caused community backlash

A proposed telecommunications tower just outside the town of Harvey left residents furious at the shire’s most recent council meeting.

The Shire of Harvey looked at an application to build a communications tower along Mitchell Road in Wokalup in November last year, and at the time inconsistencies with the application were identified and the shire pushed the decision to a later date.

Residents, however, were caught unaware the later date had now arrived and with the item listed on the agenda last month several Wokalup residents attended the meeting wondering why they had received no information.

The matter was removed from the meeting’s agenda after residents were given the opportunity to voice their opinion of the tower.

Resident Michael Mamo asked why the council had not provided residents with plans around the site, it’s location, or environmental plans and health reports, despite the community voicing its opposition to the tower in November.

“It wasn’t brought to my attention that the meeting would be discussed and the final fate of that telecommunications tower would be until today,” he said.

Margret Cooper owns the property where the tower is proposed to sit and said she was strongly opposed to the tower.

Shire president Michelle Campbell said she was advised the administration was withdrawing the report from the agenda and residents who had given deputations would be provided more information about why.

Cr Campbell said she wanted to offer residents the opportunity to do their deputations today so the council was aware of their opinions of the tower.

After the group of residents left the meeting the council continued to discuss further matters on their agenda, but the sound of raised voices from outside the chamber painted a picture of how residents felt after their concerns had been raised.

The tower is one of many planned for the region with a joint partnership with Swoop Mobile aimed at improving mobile connectivity.