Telstra pushes ahead with phone tower for Bushfield

The planning permit for the $250,000 project to build a 35-metre 4G and 5G tower on land along the Hopkins Highway is back before council after the existing application was re-notified.

A Telstra spokesperson said it had listened to the community and made changes to the plans for a new mobile site in Bushfield.

"We've moved the proposed site 260m further north in response to feedback from meetings and a community drop-in session held with locals," it said.

"Shifting the site closer to the Hopkins Highway will alleviate some of the amenity concerns that have been raised by a small number of locals and will provide a greater visual buffer.

"The new location strikes the right balance between amenity and coverage which is so crucial to improve connectivity in Bushfield.

"As part of this work, we also looked at a number of alternative locations including sites to the east, near Staywood Road, and farmland to the south-west of Bushfield but they didn't stack up."

The spokesperson said Telstra was looking forward to progressing the planning permit and getting to work once it was approved.

The tower would be built just off the Hopkins Highway between McKenzies Road and Philmore Road under the plans before council.

"This revised location provides a greater buffer between the facility itself, and the majority of dwellings located along McKenzies Road," the application says.

Petitions signed by more than 250 in 2020 opposed the original plans which residents said would sandwich some residents between two towers 500 metres apart.

But objectors had also signaled concern over the new location and had vowed to fight the development all the way to the Victorian Civil Administrative Tribunal.

The new location has been formally placed on public notification again by Warrnambool City Council for community comment.

The council is not expected to decide on the project until after May 9.