While a council report recommended the application for the 30 metre tower be approved, Cr Len Roberts said concern over the location of the tower near Hawks Nest pre-school led to the refusal.

“All the facts and figures might indicate that the tower is not necessarily harmful, but council was not prepared to risk something like that near a school or pre-school,” Cr Roberts said.

“We have listened to concerns of the residents.”

If the tower was approved, it would have been 200m from residential properties and 225m from Tea Gardens Preschool.

At the time of the application the applicant assured the tower would emit less than one per cent of the EME levels recommended by the World Health Standards.

But Cr Roberts said that a tower on the proposed site could be ‘visually terrible’.

This is the third time council has refused the tower on this site, after an application was knocked back in March last year, based on concerns it would jeopardise tourists’ attraction to the area.

The company’s first proposal made in 2005 applied to build the tower at Hawks Nest Sewerage Plant. But it was also blocked on the basis that it was a threat to nearby visual amenities and detracted from the scenic quality of surrounding land.

Council said it is prepared to continue to work with Optus to find another location.

Council’s report into the application stated that large areas of Hawks Nest do not receive coverage from existing Optus telecommunication towers in Tea Gardens and Elourera Park.