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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 5 (Hansard) 16 May) . . Page.. 1421 ..
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY QUESTION
QUESTION NO 196
Telecommunications Towers
(1) What applications, if any, have been made regarding the positioning of communications towers within the ACT.
(2) What is the proposed location of the tower, or extension of a tower, in each case.
(3) Will the Minister be acting to protect our hilltops.
Mr Humphries - the answer to the members question is as follows:
(1) There are currently no applications with the ACT Planning Authority for any mobile telecommunications facility.
(2) There are no proposals.
(3) The Government is well aware of the community's concerns about these facilities. On 18 January 1996 the then Federal Minister for Housing and Regional Development, Mr Brian Howe MP, certified Draft Amendment No 18 to the National Capital Plan which incorporates the ACT Telecommunications Plan. This Plan was prepared jointly with the ACT Planning Authority and includes requirements for ACT Government approvals where the land is not designated under the National Capital Plan.
The Government appreciates the need to protect hilltops in Canberra. However, there has been, and there may be in the future, a need to site a mobile telecommunication facility in an elevated location to achieve its area coverage. In such cases the joint use of existing facilities has been encouraged and will be in the future.
The ACT Planning Authority has been ensuring that applications received in 1995 were consistent with the plan's requirements during its preparation.
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