COUNCILLORS are confident they've made the right call for residents, approving a new Telstra phone tower at West Wallsend.
The 30-metre high tower at the Lake Macquarie Fire Control Centre on George Booth Drive is expected to deliver better reception to businesses, residents and visitors to Cameron Park.
At Monday night's Lake Macquarie council meeting, Labor Cr Brian Adamthwaite said fast, efficient and reliable communication will help the entire community and is vital for employment and education.
"From time to time we talk about building, we talk about housing stock, we talk about communities growing and one of the things we talk about in great detail is the infrastructure that's available to those communities," he said.
"It's good to see that in the north-western parts of the city and I think in some instances on the western side of the lake as well, where communities who have not enjoyed high-quality communication infrastructure are receiving these things and being very appreciative of it."
He noted there were no submissions on the proposal, which he took as a good sign of community support.
Not only will the development service the growing nearby residential estates, but it's expected to give improved coverage in emergencies.
The phone tower is 24.5m, or almost 550 per cent higher than the maximum height of buildings allowed in the area.
It will be built on a site surrounded by vegetation, with the nearest residential areas at Northlakes and Cameron Park about 290m away.
Other residential developments are Barnsley, West Wallsend, Holmesville and Seahampton are more than 500m from the phone tower.
