People power

Youngster Callen along with West Sunshine and Ardeer residents celebrated a win against electricity giant Powercor last week. 73585  Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTTYoungster Callen along with West Sunshine and Ardeer residents celebrated a win against electricity giant Powercor last week. 73585 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT

BY NATALIE GALLENTI
WEST Sunshine and Ardeer residents celebrated a win over electricity giant Powercor on the weekend.
After almost two years of tireless campaigning by the Ardeer and Sunshine West Powerlines Action Group, the multinational company recently announced it would not install overhead powerlines in the area.
Local Greens MP Colleen Hartland said the decision demonstrated what could be achieved when a community worked together.
“I witnessed first-hand the strength of this community when I was participating in the campaign – today I give them my congratulations on this fantastic win,” she said.
Ardeer and Sunshine West Powerlines Action Group representative Geraldine Brooks said the 66,000-volt powerlines proposal was sprung on them last year with inadequate consultation and with disregard for community health and visual amenity.
“Sixty-six thousand volt powerlines through our community would have exposed families to high electromagnetic field levels. We found that completely unacceptable and made sure the proponent Powercor got this message loud and clear throughout one year of community meetings, protests, letter writing, petitions and publicity,” the high-profile community activist said.
“There’s a huge sense of relief that the lines won’t be destroying our health or visual amenity.
“I think everyone is buoyed by the fact that the community can be victorious.”
Powercor was proposing to install powerlines, which would have supplied power to growing industrial areas in Melbourne’s West and supplement residential power, close to the local kindergarten.
“This posed an unacceptable risk for people in the community,” Ms Brooks said.
“These organisations need to take notice of what the community wants. It’s not always about business as usual.”
Powercor Australia’s corporate affairs manager, Hugo Armstrong, said the power lines were originally planned to be installed overhead, but after community consultation and further planning, the company decided to locate the project underground.
“We would like to thank local residents for their input to the issue, and for their patience while we worked with local and state governments to find the right solution,” he said.
Ms Brooks said the community was thrilled with the outcome and it was a great example of a close-knit community working tirelessly together.

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