MANY people regard mobile phone towers as unsightly blots on the landscape, but Bundaberg regional councillor Wayne Honor yesterday welcomed a decision to approve another one for the region.

The council’s planning and development committee recently gave the go-ahead for the tower in a fenced enclosure of about 120sq m on a 14.88ha block of land on the Isis Highway.

In a report to the committee, planning officer Hamish McIntosh said the tower would be appropriately set back and screened from the road so it would not be visually obtrusive.

It will be about 700m south of Pine Creek Road.

Cr Honor said yesterday the new phone owner would improve the communications network for people living in the region’s hinterland.

He said the recent flooding caused huge problems for people in areas such as Gin Gin.

Cr Honor, who was cut off in Gin Gin by floodwaters, said on December 30 the town had no mobile or landline services.

“All the EFTPOS and teller machines went down,” he said.

“When that happens you have a cashless society, and we had major problems.”

Cr Honor said if there were more mobile phone towers in the region it would have alleviated some of the problems.

“If some people were able to get high on a hill they were able to get line-of-sight contact with a tower,” he said.

“But that wasn’t widely known.”

Cr Honor said it was important people living in country areas had mobile phone coverage.

“In modern times we shouldn’t have black spots,” he said.

“But there are black spots all over the hinterland and that’s something that needs to be addressed.”

Cr Honor said many rural residents needed communications to run their businesses from home.