CONSTRUCTION started last week on a 25m Optus mobile phone tower in Brighton - three weeks before its final approval.
Brisbane City Council development assessment chairman Ann Bennison said Optus would not be penalised, despite jumping the gun, and council would judge the application on its merits.
Brighton residents opposed to the tower lodged objections with council and will hold a public meeting on Saturday, at 10am at Decker Park.
Resident Carol Parkinson said people were worried about potential health problems, especially for children, caused by the tower.
"There are houses about 100m away and the two schools are just over 600m away from it," Mrs Parkinson said.
Brighton State School and St Kieran's Primary School are nearby.
Mrs Parkinson and neighbour Dreina Baird said they were shocked to see cement trucks, and cherry pickers at the Holmes St site early on October 19 pouring concrete and erecting the tower's first section.
Cr Bennison said the deadline on objections was extended to November 11 after an administrative problem.
But Optus was not told of the new dead line, she said.
"We do not usually notify a developer when (an objection) period is finished ... they make their own assumptions and cheek with the courts to see if there's an appeal," Cr Bennison said.
She said objecting to a tower proposal with no proof of health problems was problematic.
Mrs Parkinson said residents were being used as guinea pigs.
Optus community relations manager Ross Monoghan was contacted but did not respond by deadline.
Northside Chronicle 26 October 1999
