Wokalup residents frustrated by constant delays with communication tower that will provide necessary service

Constant delays for an application for a communications tower in Wokalup have residents frustrated and fearful, as they desperately want improvements to services so they can call triple-0. Shire of Harvey councillors looked at an application to build a communications tower on Mitchell Road in Wokalup in November, but inconsistencies with the application were identified and the council pushed the decision to a later date. The decision landed back in council chambers last month, but was again delayed, much to the frustration of Margret and Robbie Cooper. After a previous council meeting, the Reporter shared Mrs Cooper’s concerns as the owner of the land the tower was intended to be built on. While not thrilled to have a tower on her land, Mrs Cooper needs it because of the service it will provide, making her feel safer in her home. Currently, she can very rarely make phone calls from her property, with triple-0 calls even beyond her mobile coverage, and the internet is essentially non-existent. “I said to the shire ‘guarantee me that I can get triple-0, and I will have the tower’,” she said. “I wouldn’t dream of doing something that I thought was going to spoil our block of land out there. “But it is necessary to live in this day and age.” Mr Cooper spoke of a terrifying experience when he tried to call an ambulance for Mrs Cooper, but was unable to get a signal. “I tried to call an ambulance but we had no phone signal, no internet, nothing,” he said. “I had to get Margret into the car as she was pretty close to being unconscious. “If we didn’t have a wheelchair here, I would have never got her to the car and into Harvey Hospital.” The tower is being planned as part of the Shire of Harvey’s partnership with Swoop Mobile for the Regional Connectivity Program. It aims to improve coverage for 5000 addresses within the shire of Harvey, including for the Coopers. However, they says the delays in approvals and the stress the couple are facing are becoming too much.