A 24-METRE mobile phone tower will be erected on church land in Wyndhamvale at the end of this month.
Neighbours objecting to the Telstra tower at Wyndhamvale Christian Centre on Ballan Rd lost an appeal to stop the project at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal late last year.
Maureen McKenna, a neighbour to the tower, said she was angry the church was making money from the tower.
Telstra is believed to be paying about $14,000 a year to use the church land.
Senior VCAT member Russell Byard said in his determination he would uphold a Wyndham City Council decision to approve the tower because its need outweighed the “relatively minor intrusion” it caused visually.
Mr Byard said he could not agree with neighbours that the tower would be detrimental to nearby farms because mobile phone reception in fact provided a service to farmers.
He also said mobile phone towers had become familiar to modern eyes and less noticeable over recent decades.
The tower will be build behind the church, fenced off, and screened with landscaping.
It will form part of Telstra’s new 3G network to deliver data and video, as well as voice services to the area.
