A row over an “ugly” 5G mast in a Tyneside village has been reignited after it emerged that it had been installed in the wrong place.
There was an outcry from locals in Hazlerigg last year when a 59ft phone mast was erected in Coach Lane, having initially been rejected by Newcastle City Council. The pole was approved on appeal by a Government planning inspector last summer, but network Three could now be forced to pull it down.
Because the mast was erected in the wrong location, just a few yards away from where it should have been, the telecoms firm has been forced to apply for new retrospective planning permission for the development. It has, once again, sparked something of a backlash from residents – with opponents claiming that the mast has become a “total eyesore” and a target for graffiti.
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One campaigner, Marc Wilkinson, even travelled down from Edinburgh to collect objections to the scheme and delivered 171 written notices from local residents to the city council on Tuesday. Those letters called the 5G pole "obtrusive, ugly and incongruous" and said it risked causing "unnecessary upset, anxiety and fear of harm impacting the quality of the local area".
Hazlerigg Parish Council accused the city council of a “blatant disregard for local democracy” last year because their objections and an 80-name petition against it were not made public on the local authority’s website, an issue that has cropped up again with the latest application and which planning chiefs have pledged to resolve.
A spokesperson for the parish council said that requests to have the mast moved to a less intrusive spot had “fallen on deaf ears”. They added: "Furthermore, the original application was refused on visual amenity grounds and the mast cabinets are now crudely daubed with graffiti and are an absolute eyesore.
"The current application provides the opportunity for Newcastle City Council to request that the applicant removes the mast, which was installed without the necessary permissions, and reconsiders the need for this infrastructure in this location."
In its application to the council, Cignal Infrastructure UK Limited said that the mast had been erected in a different location due to “land ownership issues”. A spokesperson for Three added: “The mast was built after approval for the application was granted by the Planning Inspectorate.
"After we became aware that the mast had been built in a marginally different location on Matfen Avenue than was approved, we submitted a retrospective application to formalise the built location of the site. The mast is critical to us providing a reliable network experience to the community and we hope that the council will approve this application.”
It is expected that the decision on the 5G mast’s future will be made by the council’s planning committee in the coming weeks.
A council spokesperson said: “We have received a retrospective planning application from Cignal Infrastructure UK Limited for an 18m high telecoms mast on a grass verge in Hazlerigg. Cignal have stated that the mast was built in a marginally different location to the previous planning permission due to land ownership issues.
“All representations on this application will be uploaded to the council’s website in time for the application’s determination The council’s handling of publicity into an earlier, original application for the mast was investigated by the Local Government Ombudsman who concluded there was no significant injustice caused to warrant further investigation.”
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