Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc. (Formerly Beaumaris Tree Preservation Society 1953-70)
Tel: (03) 9589 5194, 0429176725		PO Box 7016
Fax: (03) 9589 5194		BEAUMARIS VIC 3193
www.vicnet.net.au/~phillip/m8.htm		A0034887B Victoria
ggd@netspace.net.au		28th September 2006
Dear Mayor and Councillors, Imposition, apparently without Notice to the Public, of Large Obtrusive Telecommunications Cabinets on Beaumaris Beach Park Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc. has been told by the Member for Sandringham, Murray Thompson MLA, that a constituent had expressed concern to him over the adverse effect on the Beach Park landscape of recent installation of telecommunications cabinets on the edge of Beach Park, Beaumaris, closest to Beach Road, opposite 369 Beach Road, Beaumaris, which is between McGregor and Surf Avenues (Melway 86A7). Stark Telecommunications Cabinets that could benefit from screening planting Unilateral Imposition: Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc. has had no notice that such an installation was proposed, or that there was any public notice on the site to announce the proposal. This use of the power of Commonwealth legislation to impose telecommunications infrastructure without prior public notification is not supported by Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc. as it can lead to unnecessary and avoidable degrading of highly important and greatly regarded landscapes. Screening Planting Suggested: Until that excessively authoritarian legislative approach is modified, it would seem that the best treatment to minimize the effect on the landscape and view here of the single-minded and insensitive approach taken to this unilateral siting would be for Bayside City Council, as the Committee of Management of Beach Park, to plant some suitable indigenous coastal planting on either side of, and on the seaward side of, the cabinets to soften their present stark outline. We suggest that the plants should be only a little higher than the height of the cabinets. Undergrounding would be Better: It is better that the cabinets were placed on this purely grassed area rather than on some relatively undisturbed area of indigenous foreshore vegetation. That grassed area was formed by the former City of Sandringham having filled that land with waste material and then grassing it over. An even better outcome, which might still be possible, would have been the undergrounding of the cabinets, which should not be a major problem in this high, well-drained position. There are no tree roots to risk damaging in that section of filled land. The antenna component of the installation is relatively small, and has been placed on and close to an existing lamp pole, and it does not extend higher than it. Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc. would appreciate being informed about whether the Council decides to arrange some screening planting as suggested, please. Yours sincerely, Adrian Cerbasi President Beaumaris Conservation Society Inc. cc.        Mr Murray Thompson MLA, Member for Sandringham; Mr Noel Pullen MLC, Member for Higinbotham;             Hon John Thwaites MLA, Minister for the Environment, Mr David Davis MLC, Shadow Minister for the Environment, Mr Andrew Robb MHR, Member for Goldstein; Bayside Leader