A telecoms company has finally been ordered to take down a huge phone mast they suddenly erected as an ‘emergency’ back in 2020, because it towers over people’s homes in South Bristol.
The firm responsible has been ordered to take down the 30m high phone mast in Ashton Gate by the middle of December, after an appeal to be given more time was thrown out by a Government planning inspector.
The 30m high phone mast suddenly appeared on land at the back of the South Bristol Retail Park in Ashton Gate over the course of four days back in November 2020. A firm called Waldon Communications, on behalf of a different firm called MBNL, erected the mast to boost the 4G signal for phone company EE.
The firm had invoked special emergency planning powers for the communications network, and said because stadium bosses at Ashton Gate had required the removal of a phone mast on top of the stadium roof, another location nearby was needed.
The 30m mast was just a few feet from the back garden fences of homes in Smyth Road and Gerald Road, and local residents said that as well as completely towering over their gardens and windows, the buzz from the plant building at its base was unbearable.
They came out to protest about the sudden erection of the mast during the middle of the second Covid lockdown, and it has taken four years for Bristol City Council to deal with the issue. First, the emergency powers invoked by MBNL lasted for 18 months, then the firm applied for planning permission to make the mast a permanent fixture in Ashton Gate.
When that was refused, they waited for council planners to issue an enforcement notice to require them to remove it, and when that was eventually done, the company appealed to the Government planning inspector, saying they needed even more time.
But now, a Government planning inspector has disagreed and dismissed the firm’s appeal, albeit pointing out that because it has taken seven months to decide on the appeal, MBNL effectively got the extra time they were asking for anyway.
MBNL’s main basis for the appeal was that although a permanent alternative site has been found, and construction has been completed, integrating it into the existing mobile network hadn’t yet been done.
“The appellants therefore request that the period for compliance with the requirement of the notice be extended to eight months to allow for this to happen prior to the decommissioning from the current temporary site,” said planning inspector Ken McEntee. “While I note the appellants’ reasons for this request, I am also mindful that nearly five months have elapsed since the appeal was submitted with enforcement action effectively suspended.”
Ordering them to remove the mast by the middle of December, Mr McEntee added: “As the compliance period will begin again from the date of this decision, the appellants will effectively have had some seven months in which to integrate the installation on the new permanent site and to remove the unauthorised installation from the appeal site, which is just one month short of that requested. I consider this period to be more than reasonable and am not satisfied there is good reason to justify extending the compliance period further,” he added.
