Around 80 local residents and supporters attended the community meeting on Monday night (19th September). It was a great show of support, and there was a strong sentiment that the latest plans should be strongly opposed. After presentations by Ramon Collodetti and Anne Voss, and many questions, the meeting concluded with the following motion, passed unanimously:
“That the local community supports the Merri Creek Residents Group in continuing to oppose the application for a new 66kV facility at the Brunswick Terminal Station”.
As discussed at the meeting there are a number of actions that individuals can take to support the campaign, as well as encouraging friends and neighbours to do likewise.
1 – LODGE AN OBJECTION WITH MORELAND COUNCIL
Attached is an electronic version of the objection form we handed out at the meeting. These can be lodged any time up until Council makes a decision (currently muted for late October) but the earlier you can send in your objection the better. Some of the grounds you may wish to include in your objection are:
- The new 66kV facility is an inappropriate development for a residential zoned area. Also, the design of the new facility makes no effort to reflect the residential nature of the area.
- Insufficient evidence presented about the safety of the facility for local residents, particularly in the event of an emergency event (such as a fire or explosion).
- Concern about the impact on households (particularly children) under the high voltage transmission lines coming into the BTS. At a minimum, these could be placed underground given the significantly increased EMF exposure they will create.
- Concern about the impact of excavation activities on a highly contaminated industrial site (for residents and users of the recreational facilities adjoining the site).
- The application indicates an inadequate type and scale of landscaping to screen the new buildings and electric fences.
- Concern about increasing the size of an already identified ‘security threat’ in a residential area (power companies have argued that the electric fence is required to deter terrorists).
- Inadequate consultation by Moreland Council with local residents, despite a policy indicating it is required to do so on developments of such scale.
2 - CONTACT LOCAL COUNCILLORS
Email, write or phone Moreland City Councillors who will be making a decision on this application in the next month or so. Encourage others to do the same. This does not require you to go into technical details or grounds of objection (although you can) – just let them know you do not support it and want them to oppose the application when they vote at Council.
South Ward (this is the Ward where the BTS is located):
Lambros Tapinos – 0433 419 075 – ltapinos@moreland.vic.gov.au
Jo Conellan – 0428 348 447 or 9387 8254 – jconnellan@moreland.vic.gov.au
Alice Pryor – 0416 219 261- apryor@moreland.vic.gov.au
North-West Ward
Kathleen Matthews-Ward – 0428 573 785 or 9300 3567 - kmatthewsward@moreland.vic.gov.au
John Kavanagh – 0427 550 935 or 9379 4734 - jkavanagh@moreland.vic.gov.au
Enver Erdogan – 0412 266 245 - eerdogan@moreland.vic.gov.au
Oscar Yildiz (Mayor) – 0413 850 357 - oyildiz@moreland.vic.gov.au
North-East Ward
Toby Archer – 0466 004 652 - tarcher@moreland.vic.gov.au
Michael Teti – 0435 105 368 or 9387 5217 - mteti@moreland.vic.gov.au
Stella Kariofyllidis – 0466 004 650 or 9240 1193 - skariofyllidis@moreland.vic.gov.au
Anthony Helou – 0419 515 593 or 9384 3147– ahelou@moreland.vic.gov.au
3 – JOIN THE CAMPAIGN EMAIL LIST
Obviously if you're reading this message you're already on the list, but it would be great if you could encourage others to sign up so we can use this forum as the primary means of communicating about the campaign. Ask others in your neighbourhood to go to http://powergridsolutions.blogspot.com/ and enter their email address to subscribe.
Finally, thanks for your ongoing support – our community can be a much better place for years to come because of your active involvement.
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