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| Image Courtesy of Crown Castle. |
The community were mostly outraged with such a large ugly development with over 100 residents making their opinions known to Council. Through out the process it was evident that residents would like their phone coverage improved but not at any cost and the cost to coastal visual amenity was high with this proposal.
What the company failed to learn from that exercise that the Kioloa / Bawley Point community want to be consulted and included in the process not locked out and treated like Country hicks who can be walked all over.
Now Crown Castle have come back for round two- this time they have invoked the State Environment Planning Policy b(SEPP) for Infrastructure- which basically allows for a 50 m tower to be built in a rural zoning as complying development meaning the first time the community heard of it was when it went onto Councils website approved by a private certifier.
The SEPP Infrastructure for NSW is one of those dodgy bits of planning law that allows things to be built without notification and in my opinion is a recipe for disaster and build mistrust in the community when it comes to governance around development.
If Crown Castle had simply learnt it lesson and spent some time with the people of Bawley Point / Kioloa Im sure they could have worked together as they have done in the past to find a constructive solution to the problem which could have resulted in some monopoles rather than a hideous lattice tower.
Right now the community are angry over this corporation basically bullying its way in with whatever means it sees fit. The process is all wrong and needs to be part of the overhaul of the State Planning regulations that are currently under review.
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