Shocked parents only learnt of the Vodafone planning application after Creswick Children’s Services proprietor Emily Chatham spotted a crane-style truck doing testing on the Anne Street site.

The truck returned yesterday and Hepburn Shire Council confirmed the phone company wants to erect a 40-metre high pole carrying six antennas and four radio communication disks.

More than 130 children from 74 families use the Andrew Street childcare centre, which opened in May. Ages range from five months to five years.

Ms Chatham, 32, said her first reaction was “absolute shock”.

“There’s no evidence one way or another it won’t cause harm to children but why can’t we err on the side of caution?” Ms Chatham said.

Parent Sarah Evans from Smeaton, whose two-year-old twin girls attend the centre, said she was “angry and disappointed” how council and Vodafone had handled the issue so far.

“We’ve only learnt about this through the childcare centre,” Ms Evans said.

“Honestly, to put it near kids is ridiculous when we really don’t know what the future health effects are.”

Ms Chatham owns and manages the centre with her husband, Chris.

The couple say $1 million was invested to open Creswick’s first integrated children’s services complex.

The proposed tower site is on a controversial block of land.

Last year the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal criticised Hepburn Shire Council and knocked back an application it had approved to erect a truck wash on the land.

Ms Chatham said she would not mind if the mobile phone tower was erected at the back of the site. This would place it up to three kilometres away from the childcare centre.

But the testing truck had been spotted twice at the front of the block, near power lines, Ms Chatham said.

Hepburn Shire Councillor Don Henderson, who lives in Creswick, said he needed to keep an open mind on the issue.

“But do they need to go near populated areas in a rural shire?” he asked. “I think the answer to that would be no.”

Vodafone’s media department did not respond to The Courier by late yesterday but its website showed Creswick as being an area of low coverage.

The Australian Communications Industry Forum says mobile phone companies must have regard to community sensitivity when selecting tower sites.

These include residential areas, aged care centres, hospitals, schools and childcare centres.