Residents defeated in battle against ‘ugly’ phone masts
THREE mobile phone masts will appear on the roof of a building in Clifton after residents’ lost their battle to get the “ugly” antennae and microwave dishes put somewhere else.
City councillors approved the application from Vodafone.
The telecoms giant applied to mount the masts on the roof of the Clifton BT Exchange building in St John’s Road to replace telecommunications equipment it must remove from the Clifton Down Shopping Centre.
Six antennae and two microwave dishes on three 3.5m poles will replace the 3G and 4G coverage currently provided by the equipment on the shopping centre, which has been sold for redevelopment.
But neighbours argued that the 11ft masts would look “really really ugly” and would spoil the views for “miles and miles around”.
They accused Vodafone of not doing enough to find an alternative site that would cause less harm to the Whiteladies Road Conservation Area, and of conducting an “unfair” fight.
An officer said that Vodafone had “falsely” turned the colour of the sky from blue to grey in an image depicting what the pale masts would look like from St John’s Road on a cloudy day.
But he told members of a Bristol City Council planning committee that officers had taken the digital alteration into account in making their recommendation to approve the application.
“Maintaining this coverage for 3G and 4G in the area is considered to be a beneficial impact, and in this case it’s considered to outweigh the harm to the conservation area posed by the development,” he said.
The officer said Vodafone had conducted a search for alternative sites in an area “nearby” the shopping centre after it received a “notice to quit” the shopping centre, along with providers EE and Hutchison 3G.
He said the company had found there was no existing or planned telecommunications equipment they could share within a 275m radius, and no suitable sites other than the roof of the BT Exchange building.
However, Clifton Down councillor Clive Stevens, said the telecoms company should have widened their search area or worked with other telecommunications providers to find a site that was less damaging.
“The harm to the conservation area is going to be ‘in your face’,” he said.
“Vodafone needs to do better homework.
“They’re corporate giants just squashing ordinary people and taking planning for granted.”
Committee members voted unanimously to approve the application, with several saying they did so “grudgingly”.
Labour councillor Jo Sergeant said she did not think people would be “happy” if they lost their mobile phone reception.
Conservative councillor Richard Eddy said: “The applicant’s being evicted from their present site; they’ve done a trawl of alternatives [and] this is the only one suitable.
“As the officers have said, the impact on the conservation area would be very limited, very minimal.”
The council received 31 objections to the application and one letter in support.